


TTR: Origins

by JWade



Series: TTR: Team Trickster's Revenge [2]
Category: Original Work, Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-08 03:20:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 28,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14096049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JWade/pseuds/JWade
Summary: This is the origin story of Team Trickster's Revenge and how the trickster twins Astra and Raine met up with Loki and gathered their other friends along the way.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have this marked as both a supernatural fanfic and an original work. Since there is only one character from supernatural and everyone else is original characters as well as the situations they are in, I felt it appropriate.   
> TTR's facebooks group is https://www.facebook.com/groups/198990697356863/

Loki had been meeting with some of the other gods when he heard the frantic prayer. Normally he never would have heard it, especially given that it wasn’t to him specifically. It was a desperate cry for help from anyone listening. His connection with the one sending it though allowed it to come through clear as day. He got up from the table that he’d been stuck sitting at for more than a week dealing with bureaucratic crap that he couldn’t care less about, and promptly told them where to shove it when they tried to make him stay. 

He followed the prayer to reappear in what seemed like a hospital. He saw little Polly sitting there, crying, being held by her mother who was also crying. He noticed the father was pacing the room, carrying Carol, the youngest sister. The absence of Cassidy told him that something was very wrong with her, so he reached out his senses to find her. Until they were truly his, he wouldn’t be able to sense them from too far away, but if she was in this hospital that would be well within his current range. It took him barely a few seconds to find her, and less than that to realize that, yes, there was something very wrong. He could feel her slipping away. 

He flew to where she was and found her on an operating table, with her side sliced open as the doctors were using suction to remove some greenish red gunk from inside her. He didn’t need to hear the frantic beeping of the machines or the doctor’s yelling about her crashing to know that she was dying. He closed his eyes and reached out for her spirit, yanking it back to her body before it got far. He placed an invisible hand on her head, monitoring the doctor’s work and adding his own subtle help in the process. He quickly found the problem. Her appendix had burst and was circulating poison through her body. With his help, they managed to get it cleaned out and remove the remains of the destroyed organ without causing any more damage. 

He followed as she was led to a recovery room, and he wished that he had known sooner what was wrong. He could have healed it completely before anyone noticed, but now he was stuck. Healing her completely would raise far too many questions and too much suspicion. There was a line between a miracle and raising suspicion. He’d already caught enough flak for crossing that line with this particular girl once before when the butchers were going to cut her chest open to repair her heart when she was just a few months old when the defect miraculously healed overnight. That had been life or death though. The chances of her surviving that surgery was just far too low for him to accept. This time she would survive, and he had no excuses for crossing that line. 

He stayed with her, invisible, as her parents and sisters entered the room. He reached over to run a hand through Polly’s hair, trying to give the distraught girl some comfort as she watched her twin in the hospital bed. She didn’t know about him. Not yet. But he hoped that she would be able to sense his presence and take relief from it. He was doubting his resolve to stay invisible until they were older. He had felt drawn to them the moment they were born. They were destined for him. As his apprentices, practically his children in all but blood. They weren’t the first to be born, but they were the first that he had followed so far before he decided against taking them on. 

His questionable claim on any aspects of the pagan life made him far more likely not to take on the apprentices that were designated for him, and so he usually took the perfectly valid choice to walk away. Of all potential apprentices born, only about ten percent of them came to fruition across all the pagan peoples anyway. These two were different though. There was something about them. Perhaps stemming from the fact that they were twins, which was very rare when it came to potential apprentices. He couldn’t turn his back on them so easily. Especially not as he watched the hardships they had to overcome. If he were perfectly honest with himself, he was basically lost the moment he had to step in to heal Cassidy’s heart at four months old. When Polly fell ill with double pneumonia two years later and he lent his strength to her healing, it just solidified his claim on them. 

Traditionally, the god, when accepting them as apprentices, would appear to them on their twelfth birthday and spend the next year building trust and letting them get to know him before the official offer on their thirteenth birthdays. There were no specific rules about waiting until they were twelve, but it was basically an unspoken one. Loki didn’t have much regard for the written rules though, much less the unspoken ones, and eventually decided that it was time to become a part of their lives. He had watched them long enough to know that they could keep a secret, and that was the greatest concern regarding reaching out too young. 

He watched as Cassidy woke up a few hours later, still feeling quite groggy, but the little conversation she managed raised the spirits of everyone in the room, especially little Polly. Loki could tell she was fighting to stay awake longer, and would possibly set her healing back so an invisible hand on her head put her back to sleep before any damage could be done. Now that they were assured that she would be alright, they planned to go get something to eat while she rested. “Please, can’t I stay here? I promise I’ll behave and I won’t leave the room and I’ll be really careful and get out of the way if the doctor’s come in and everything,” Polly begged. Her sister was her other half. She wasn’t leaving her side if she didn’t have to. 

“I don’t know if that’s allowed,” Jean said looking sympathetically at her daughter, not noticing the nurse coming in to check on her. 

“If she can make sure not to touch the machines or tubes, she can stay as long as you’re not gone too long,” the nurse told her. She had a twin sister herself and could only imagine what Polly must be feeling right now. No one understood the bonds between twins unless they were one. 

“Well…” Jean looked to her husband Bruce who gave a half shrug. “Alright. We’ll give it a shot. But if you don’t behave you’ll be coming with us next time, understand?” 

“I promise,” Polly said nodding enthusiastically. “I’ll be a perfect angel.”

Loki couldn’t help but choke with laughter at that statement. Not that she wasn’t capable of being a perfect angel when it was important to her, but he doubted there were many situations other than this one that would be that important to the eight-year-old girl. That combined with his own little-known origins, was enough to make that statement hilarious to him. He wouldn’t admit it, but he may have used some subtle compulsory magic to convince the parents to leave her here. He would take the opportunity to reach out to her while she was alone.

He waited a few minutes for the nurse to finish and then ask if Polly needed anything before she left and he made himself visible and knelt next to her. She jumped at his sudden appearance. “Who are you?” she asked nervously. She hadn’t heard the door open for anyone else to come in. 

“My name is Loki. I’m a god. I heard your prayers and came to save your sister,” he told her gently. 

“So, you’ll fix her?” Polly asked hopefully. 

“I’ve done what I can. The doctors would have a lot of questions if she was suddenly completely healed, but I am helping her heal faster and keeping most of the pain away,” he promised. 

“Not all the pain?” she asked. 

“Pain is useful, little one,” Loki told her. “That’s what tells us when something is hurt so we don’t hurt it worse. I left her enough to remind her not to pull her stitches or move too much, but I’m keeping away what’s unnecessary. Do you understand?” 

“Yeah. I think so,” Polly said. “What kind of god are you? I’ve never heard of Loki before. The god my Mommy tells us about doesn’t have a name.”

“I am one of the old gods,” he told her. “Before your mother’s god, there used to be hundreds of us that worked with people. Most left this world when he came around and started being mean to us,” he tried to put things in a way that the little girl could understand. “But I came back when you and your sister were born because you’re special. I’ve been watching over you since you were babies. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when she got sick. I could have helped her more if I’d been here sooner.”

“Why weren’t you?” she asked in the blunt manner of all children everywhere. 

“I was in a really long meeting for the last couple weeks. I checked in on you before I left, but I didn’t know anything was wrong until I heard your prayer.”

“Did you get in trouble for leaving?” she asked worriedly. 

“Nothing I can’t handle, kiddo. Once I explain they’ll understand,” Loki assured her. 

“How are we special?” she asked going back to a previous question. 

“That’s a longer story for another time. Your parents will probably be back soon, and they can’t see me. Besides, I should probably tell you both at the same time don’t you think?” he asked, tweaking her nose. She nodded a bit at that answer. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m here, but you can’t tell your parents or anyone at all other than Cassidy.”

“Not even Carol?” she asked, wondering if it was just a grown-up thing.

“Not even her. Just you and Cassidy can know. Can you keep me a secret?” 

“Uh-huh. I’m good at keeping secrets,” she said nodding emphatically. She didn’t want to risk him leaving and not helping Cassidy anymore if she said no. 

“Good girl,” Loki praised, ruffling her hair. 

“Will I still be able to see you when they’re here?” she asked hopefully. 

“Do you want to? It might make it a little more difficult to pretend,” Loki pointed out. 

“Yes, please,” she told him. She liked the idea that she, and Cassidy when she woke up, would be the only ones that could see him. It would be like an imaginary friend except real. 

“Then, okay. But Cassidy won’t be able to see me until I get a chance to talk to her too,” Loki told her and Polly nodded.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a few more days before Loki managed to catch Cassidy alone while she was awake. Even the fact that they were twins wasn’t enough for the hospital to allow Polly to stay overnight, though Jean, as her mother, was allowed. She happened to be out getting coffee at one point when Cassidy woke up. Loki was quick to seize the opportunity and gave her the same info he gave Polly and she too promised to keep him a secret. He knew that she would be more likely to slip up due to being groggy but wasn’t too worried about it. They had her on so many medications that they would be blamed for any confused hallucinations she may see.

Bruce brought Polly and Carol by every morning, and Polly refused to leave until the hospital made her, so Jean and Bruce took turns taking care of four year old Carol and taking her out places while the other stayed in the hospital with Polly and Cassidy. The doctors had said that Cassidy would be there for at least a month, given the damage that had been done when her appendix burst and the fact that it had taken two days before anyone realized what had happened. She had been diagnosed with a stomach virus instead and the vomiting wasn’t seen as anything to worry about until it got too bloody. Contrary to their expectations though, Cassidy was being discharged two weeks after her emergency surgery. Only the twins knew that it was all thanks to Loki. 

Once they were back home, it was much easier for Loki to steal time with them when no one else was around. They shared a room, their baby sister Carol had a room to herself, so if nothing else, he could just hang out in their room with them. They did tend to go off on their own a lot regardless though. Now that he was actually known by them, he could help them more with their problems. Cassidy was an extremely gifted child. He had no doubt that her IQ would be well above genius level if her parents would allow her to be tested. This caused a lot of problems for her both at school and at home. 

The other students had nothing but derision for her. They hated that she was smarter than them, and only hated her more when she refused to do their work for them. Her teachers got annoyed at her for working ahead and asking questions that no one else could understand and thus disrupting the learning for the whole class. Her parents just wanted her to be normal and fit in. This problem was only exacerbated by the fact that Polly didn’t take kindly to anyone harassing her twin, be it students or teachers and was often in trouble for defending her. 

Loki may have considered the fact that Cassidy could do a lot of good in the world if she were to stay human and use her intelligence to better humanity, but he knew it wouldn’t happen. Cassidy and Polly lived in a small farming community, where things like intelligence were treated as an anathema. Children in her situation always went the same way. They learned to hate their intelligence, pretended to be normal, acted out, and in general put themselves into a situation where no college would look at them twice. Without college, her options would be very limited and she would end up living a life of mediocrity always knowing that she could have done more. He’d seen it happen a hundred times. It was horrifying to him how often incredibly gifted children were failed by the system and ended up marginalized, never given the opportunities that they should have had. 

He had watched as Cassidy showed up for her first day of kindergarten with an encyclopedia under her arm to read in the down times, that being the only thing of her reading level that her parents would allow her to read at that age, and she was immediately pegged as different. Her teachers tested her, and wanted to move her up a few grades, but her parents said no. She didn’t even get a choice. She may have chosen not to leave her twin behind anyway, but they didn’t even ask her. They decided that she couldn’t handle the social differences of being with the older kids. Loki could have told them it wouldn’t do any good. Social differences or not, she would never be able to relate to other kids besides Polly. 

Due to these factors, Loki decided, now that he was out in the open, to teach them. He taught Cassidy how to pretend better, and Polly how to hold her temper and both of them how to get revenge without getting caught. They had been pranksters since they were old enough to understand the concept of a prank anyway. Children after his own heart, really, so it was just a matter of teaching them finesse. He also taught them more advanced lessons than they could get at school, tailoring them to their learning styles. Polly, though not in her sister’s league, was far from average intelligence. If Loki had to guess he would say that she was borderline genius herself. She didn’t advance as fast as Cassidy, but she stayed at least a few grade levels ahead of where she was in school and was slowly but steadily widening the gap. 

It was a few months after Cassidy came home from the hospital that they cornered him for the big question again. He could tell from their tone that they had been waiting for him to bring up, but lost patience with that idea. “You said you’d tell us later why we’re special,” Polly said. 

“I did, didn’t I,” he said amusedly. He looked at the two expectant faces looking up at him and chuckled. “Okay, but it’s kind of a long story so just bear with me and feel free to ask me to explain if you don’t understand something.” They both nodded. “Okay, so with us ‘old gods’ as we are referred to on this world, there are children born, every once in a while, that have the ability to become what we call demi-gods. They will have much of the same abilities as us, but not all of them. Each of these potential demi-gods is destined for a particular god. When you two were born, I felt the pull to you and came to check you out. See even when children are born with this ability, it doesn’t mean they will become demi-gods. There are lots of things that can derail it. Sometimes, they grow up in such a way that would make them…um…not the kind of people that we want to bring in,” he struggled with how to word that when speaking to eight-year-olds. “Sometimes, they decide they don’t want to join us. Sometimes the god is too busy to take on an apprentice at that point in their life, and so on.”

“So, we might be demi-gods someday?” Cassidy interrupted skeptically. 

“That will be up to you,” Loki told them. “I decided that I will take you on, if you decide that you want to.”

“We want to,” Polly said quickly. 

Loki laughed, even more at the incredulous look that her sister sent her. “That’s not something that you can or should decide right now, kiddo, though I admire your enthusiasm.” She ducked her head and blushed. “That is a decision that you will be asked to make on your thirteenth birthday, though we can consider a tentative decision before then, but not before you understand what all is involved.”

“What would we have to do?” Cassidy asked, glad that she wasn’t being forced into a decision now, and a little annoyed at her sister for volunteering them for something she knew nothing about. 

“I would teach you everything you need to know. Ideally, you would be set up with homeschooling once you’re officially my apprentices and I could teach you here…”

“But our parents would never allow that,” Polly interrupted sadly. 

“I could try and talk them into it,” Loki promised. 

“But they can’t see you,” Cassidy asked confused. 

“I can’t allow them to see me yet. Once you’re officially my apprentices, I will be able to, but only when they ask me to. It’s a little loophole in the rule, see. As long as I am responsible in some way for their children, I’m permitted to work with them for such goals,” he told them. 

“But what if they still won’t let us?” Polly asked worriedly. 

“Then I will teach you outside of school, kinda like I’m doing now,” Loki explained. 

“What if they see you and don’t want you around us at all anymore? What if they don’t want us to be demi-gods?” Cassidy asked. 

“They won’t have a choice. Once you are thirteen, you are considered to be old enough to make your own decision and that’s all that matters. There are ways that we can work it out, even if it ends up being a joint custody kind of thing. You say with me sometimes and them sometimes, but if that’s what you want, we’ll figure it out. The only way you would be taken away from them completely is if they refuse to be reasonable at all about the idea and give you up.”

“They won’t give us up. They’ll still love us anyway,” Polly said with surety. Cassidy didn’t look so sure, but she would trust her sister’s judgement. Polly always was better with emotional stuff than she was. Cassidy understood logic and facts more than emotion. 

“One thing you should know, is that you’d need new names,” Loki told them. 

“What kind of names?” Polly asked. 

“Something from nature or the stars,” Loki told them. 

“Can I be Rain?” Polly asked. 

“Sure, but why don’t we add an e on the end to make it prettier,” Loki suggested and she nodded excitedly. “Do you have any ideas?” he asked Cassidy who seemed deep in thought. 

After a while she seemed to come to a decision. “What about Astral?” she said, remembering that she liked the word when she was reading about it and meant something to do with the stars. 

“How about we drop the L at the end and make it Astra?” Loki suggested. 

Cassidy grinned. “I love it.” From then on, the twins called each other Astra and Raine, telling their parents that it was just funny nicknames. Their parents just let it go, very used to those two having their inside jokes. Heck they had a whole secret language no one else could understand. New nicknames weren’t that much of a stretch.


	3. Chapter 3

Over the next few years, Astra and Raine got closer and closer to Loki, much to their parent’s worry. They noticed that the girls were shutting themselves off from other people more and more, which was only offset by their lack of trouble in school lately. They had noticed them talking to no one more than once, but it was explained away as an imaginary friend. Jean and Bruce thought they were a little old for imaginary friends, but didn’t see what they could do about it, and eventually decided to just count their blessings that they seemed to be adjusting better in school, even if they were more withdrawn. Maybe it was just a twin thing, being wrapped up in each other to the expense of all else. They did put their collective feet down when they kept cutting out their baby sister Carol. Carol wanted to hang out with her big sisters more as she got older and wasn’t very happy when they didn’t let her. It wasn’t that they didn’t like her or want her around, but they couldn’t hang out with Loki when she was around. 

Needless to say, things were starting to get tense, but neither girl cared much. It would be tense either way. At least this way they were happy. Before Loki came into their lives the tension came from the constant lectures about Cassidy ‘showing off’ her intelligence, no matter how hard she tried not to and Polly’s constant fighting to protect her sister, which their parents claimed wouldn’t be necessary if not for Cassidy showing off. Loki’s teaching and acceptance of them, helped them to keep their mouths shut when things got heated at school. Astra was able to keep from correcting people so much, since she didn’t care if they knew she was smart anymore and Raine got her revenge on the sly through untraceable pranks rather than yelling and fighting. From their point of view, they felt like their parents would just never be happy with them, no matter which way they went. 

Carol was a different story. As much as she wanted to hang out with her big sisters, she wasn’t happy with just that. She was very jealous of everything they had. She wanted to be let in on their inside jokes, be taught their secret language, and play with their imaginary friend, and they couldn’t let that happen. They had, at Loki’s urging, given up some of their time with him to play with her, but they still had secrets that they couldn’t share with her and she hated that. It seemed like she was always mad at them for it, even while wanting to be around them constantly. It was driving them nuts. They tried complaining to their mom, but she just admonished them about not including her more and said they should expect it if they kept shutting her out. 

By the time they were a few months away from their thirteenth birthday, Loki sat them down. They were both intent on doing it. They wanted to become his apprentices and be demi-gods. “Okay. Great. But before that decision is set in stone, I think it’s time to talk to your parents about it.”

“Why?” Astra asked. “I thought we weren’t supposed to tell them about any of this.”

“You can’t tell them too soon because at this point they can interfere in our relationship. Until your birthday, if they refuse to let you see me, I have to stay away. I didn’t want to risk them making that decision too soon, but now it’s close enough, and they really should know first. They should have the chance to register their opinion and talk with you about it,” Loki explained. 

“But what if they make you go away?” Raine asked worriedly. 

“There’s only two months until they can’t keep me away at all anymore,” Loki told them. “I’ve taught you everything I can until you’re one of us anyway. Hell, I’ve even covered what is usually covered the first couple years of your apprenticeship. To go further would be to divulge secrets that I’m forbidden from telling anyone before the rites. It won’t be so bad, and I promise, if that does happen, I’ll be back on your birthday, so we won’t be apart for long.”

“You pinky promise?” Raine asked holding out her pinky. Loki gave her an amused smile and made the standard pre-teen ritual promise. 

“Now, I’m gonna be away for a couple weeks anyway. I have another big meeting, but if something happens and you need me, just pray for me and I’ll be right here, okay?” he told them. This would be the first time he left for more than a day since Astra nearly died and he couldn’t deny he was a little nervous about it. He wished this meeting was scheduled after their birthday when they would be more durable and less vulnerable, especially since with new apprentices he would be exempt from attending at all, but unfortunately, he wasn’t in charge of scheduling. 

“Okay. We’ll talk to them while you’re gone,” Astra promised. They had told their parents two years ago that they didn’t worship their god anymore, that they worshipped Loki. Their mom just laughed and made them go to church anyway, but never said anything more about it. She had obviously thought it was a phase they would grow out of, but this would set her straight on that one. 

They waited until dinner that night and when they were all sitting around at the dinner table, Astra took the reins. “Mom. Dad. We have something we need to talk to you about.”

“What is it honey?” Jean asked curiously. 

“Loki has offered Raine and I an apprenticeship, making us demi-gods,” Astra said seriously. 

Jean felt her lips twitch in amusement, but decided to play along. “Is that so?” she asked. 

“Yeah. He said we should talk to you about it before we make the commitment,” Astra said. 

“Well, it sounds like a wonderful opportunity,” Jean said, trying not to laugh. 

“So, you don’t mind if we do it?” Raine asked hopefully. 

“Oh no. Not at all. If it will make you happy, then go for it,” she said looking to her husband who wasn’t doing quite as well at containing his mirth judging by the grin on his face. 

“Great! Thanks mom!” Raine said happily getting up to hug her. 

“So…um,” Bruce cleared his throat of the laughter starting to bubble up. “When will you be becoming semigods?” 

“It’s demi-gods, Dad,” Astra rolled her eyes at him. “And not until we turn thirteen.” 

Bruce might have asked more questions but he didn’t trust himself to keep a straight face. “I wanna be a demi-god too,” Carol piped up. 

“Well you can’t do it before you’re thirteen,” Astra told her, trying to push off the idea. Loki had already told him that Carol wasn’t a potential apprentice, but they weren’t going to be mean about it. 

“Mom! Make them let me be a demi-god too!” 

At the hard look on her twin daughter’s faces, she decided to take the path of least resistance. “Why don’t you let them be demi-gods for a while first and then we can talk about letting you join them okay?” Hopefully, giving them their thing for a while would make them feel better about letting Carol join them later. If not, she could always put her foot down then. 

Astra and Raine looked at each other and Astra shook her head when Raine started to speak up. It would be easier to just let Loki explain it to her once everything was set. She wouldn’t be able to push him around, after all. Jean took that exchange as a sign that they would be willing to let their sister join them later and mentally patted herself on the back for her handling of the issue. 

Once the girls were in their room later that night, they were both giddy. “I can’t believe she’s letting us do it, just like that,” Raine said excitedly. 

“I know. I expected a huge interrogation at least,” Astra said, just as happy. “I can’t wait to tell Loki.”

When Loki returned, they gave him the good news, that their parents were okay with it, and even supportive of the idea and the god breathed a sigh of relief. That would certainly make things easier going forward. They only had five weeks left until their birthdays and the ceremony so a lot of that was spent in planning and Loki letting them know what to expect. Their parents threw them a huge birthday party that day and Loki wouldn’t be coming until midnight. Since Astra was born just before midnight on June twentieth and Raine just after midnight on the twenty-first, he would be arriving at midnight and the ceremony would begin a few minutes later.


	4. Chapter 4

When they woke up the morning of their birthday party, both were a bundle of nervous energy. Not about the party, but about what came after. Their induction into the world of demi-gods. The two girls still had few friends, but with just the family that was obligated to come, it was still a rather large party. Their mother was one of four children and their father was one of five so they had more cousins than they could shake a stick at. And that wasn’t even counting their grandparents who had seven, nine, three, and two siblings and all their kids and grandkids. A lot of them lived out of state, but enough came to boost the numbers even higher. The party was held at the old swimming hole and while the kids and some of the adults swam, the grills were going with hotdogs and hamburgers. 

By the end of the day, Astra and Rain were both exhausted, but still too excited to sleep. At their parent’s entreaties though, they laid down in their beds and pretended, at least for a little while. Once they heard their parents go to bed, they sat up and whispered with each other as they waited for midnight to come. Loki arrived at midnight on the dot. “You kids still wanna go through with this?” he asked. 

“Yep.” 

“Definitely.”

“Okay, let’s go then,” he said holding out his hands to them and they each grabbed one. A moment later the three of them were standing in an ancient grove. They could see the altar set up with a small chalice in the center. They had been drilled on this enough to know exactly what they needed to do. Astra went and grabbed the first large green candle, carrying it towards the north, while Raine followed her with the bowl of salt. Raine began spreading the salt in a clockwise circle around the altar while Astra called on the earth to bless their ascension. They had practiced their timing in their free time, so Astra was just getting to the eastern point with the yellow candle as Raine reached that point with the salt. Astra called on the air to bless their ascension, and then went back for the red candle for the south and the blue candle for the west, calling on fire and water the same way. By the time she finished calling for the blessings of water, Raine had closed the circle of salt back at the northern point. 

Loki watched them, impressed at their timing, as they completed the circle. There was no requirement for the timing of it. There wasn’t even a requirement about the two steps being done at the same time. He had just figured since they were twins it would save time if they did it together. He couldn’t deny that it made a rather impressive sight though. As the circle sealed, both girls went to the altar and took the remaining two candles, both white, and knelt before the altar, holding the lit candles in their palms. Them completing the preparations was symbolic for them entering into the contract of their own free will. Now that it was complete, Loki took a step forward, taking his place in the altar. 

Loki took the athame waiting there and drew a cut across his arm, filling the chalice with blood as he turned to the girls. He would start with Astra since she was the oldest. “Cassidy Waterson, do you accept your place at my side as my apprentice and daughter?”

“I do, my lord,” she said clearly and Loki moved his arm so that his still dripping blood snuffed out the flame on her candle, signifying the end of her human life and the beginning of her pagan one. 

“Polly Waterson, do you accept your place at my side as my apprentice and daughter?” 

“I do, my lord,” she said just as clearly as her sister had. Once her flame was snuffed by Loki’s blood as well, he took the full goblet, sealing the wound on his arm with a thought and said, “Then rise, Astra, and take your place beside me,” as he handed it over. She took the goblet and drank a large mouthful, trying and failing not to grimace at the taste. “Rise, Raine, and take your place beside me,” he said handing the goblet to the other girl in turn who did the same. Once that was done, Astra stood to Loki’s left and Raine stood to his right and they each took the god’s hand. Loki brought each of their hands to his lips in turn and pressed a kiss to the back of them, sealing his choice of them as his. They ended the ritual and opened the circle much as they began it, and then Loki took the two of them back to their rooms. 

Now that they were demi-gods, neither girl required sleep anymore. Loki assured them that someday they would want to sleep, and even enjoy it, but they doubted it. In the meantime, they were full of questions about all those things Loki could never tell them before. None of them noticed the time passing, until their mother came into the room just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon. “What are you two doing up so early?” 

“Oh, we don’t need to sleep anymore,” Astra explained. 

“Yeah, Loki was just telling us about some of the history of the universe,” Raine told her. 

“Oh, that’s right,” she said indulgently. “You’re thirteen now, which means you’re demi-gods. Even little demi-gods need their sleep though, so come on. Back to bed. It’s too early for you to be awake.”

“But we don’t. Loki says that demi-gods don’t need sleep,” Raine argued. 

“Well I’m your mother and I say you do,” Jean said firmly. 

“Tell her, Loki,” Astra said, looking at the god. 

“I can’t appear to her unless she asks me to,” Loki reminded her. 

“Oh yeah. I forgot,” she turned back to her mother. “You have to ask Loki to appear before you can see him and then he can explain.”

Jean sighed heavily. It was too early for this. She hadn’t even had her coffee yet, but if that’s what it took to get them back to bed, then that’s what she would do. “Loki will you please appear before me,” she said lazily, only to scream and grab both girls by the arm and snatch them behind her when he did. “Who are you and how did you get in here?!” she yelled. 

“I’m Loki,” he said confused at her reaction. She had asked him to show himself after all. “I have been here for quite a while.”

“Bruce!” she screamed, dragging both girls further behind her. 

“Ow. Mom. You’re hurting me,” Raine cried, struggling against her tight grip just as her father entered the room with his shotgun cocked. 

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my daughters’ room?” he snarled, pointing the gun at the god.

“As I was explaining to your wife, my name is Loki and your daughters are now my apprentices,” Loki said calmly, knowing that the gun couldn’t hurt him. “It’s okay girls. Just relax,” he told them, seeing them still struggling and starting to cry. 

This intruder addressing his daughters after being found in their room when it was barely morning was enough to snap what was left of Bruce’s control and he pulled the trigger. Both girls screamed as their father shot the god, echoed by nine-year-old Carol who had come to see what all the fuss was about. Loki just raised and eyebrow and peeled the now flat slug off his stomach. “Well that was rude,” he said affronted. 

“Wh-what are you?” Bruce asked wide-eyed, backing away, pushing his family behind him. 

Loki rolled his eyes. “I’m a god,” he said as if explaining to a small child. “They said they spoke with you about becoming my apprentices, and that you were fine with it.”

“We didn’t think they were serious!” Jean cried before turning to the girls. “What have you done?!” 

“What you said we could do,” Raine said, tears welling up in her eyes. “We’re demi-gods now, and Loki’s apprentices. We went to the grove at midnight last night and did the ceremony.” 

“You did what?! How dare you leave this house in the middle of the night. You are both grounded,” she said, momentarily forgetting about the god still standing there and watching. 

“So you intend to punish them for doing something that you gave them permission to do, just because you lied to them and pretended to believe them when you didn’t?” Loki interjected. 

“You stay out of this!” Bruce told him waving his gun at the god again. 

“Oh for crying out loud,” Loki said and snapped his fingers. Both parents were sitting on the couch, frozen in place while Loki plopped into the recliner and Astra and Raine sat on the arms of it beside Loki. Carol was left standing in the hall, but soon ended up in the doorway of the living room, trying to watch what was going on. 

“Carol, go to your room,” Jean said desperately, trying to save at least one of her daughters. 

“That might be a good idea, little one,” Loki turned to look at her. “I promise you, no one will be hurt.” Carol’s eyes went wider than ever, but she did as her mother said and turned and ran back to her room.   
“Now, we are going to discuss this like rational people,” Loki said turning to the frozen adults. “But first…are you two okay?” he asked the girls. 

They both bared their arms to him and he could see the bruises forming and even a bit of blood leaking due to Jean’s fingernails. Only the fact that she had been trying to protect them, not hurt them, kept his temper in check. Instead he ran a hand over each of their arms, vanishing the bruises and healing the broken skin. “I thought you said we couldn’t be hurt anymore?” Astra asked. 

“It will take a little time for your powers to grow enough to protect you from everything. You can’t get sick or be killed, but for the next week or so, you can still get minor to moderate injuries,” Loki explained. 

“Their powers?” Jean asked fearfully. 

“Yes. They are now demi-gods. Over the next seven years their powers will continue to grow to full strength. Part of my job is to train them in using these powers, so they don’t get out of control,” Loki explained. 

“Well, we withdraw our permission. Take back your powers and get out of our lives,” Bruce said heatedly. 

“It doesn’t work like that I’m afraid. It can’t be undone, and even if it could be, your permission was simply a courtesy. Upon their thirteenth birthday, their wishes were the only ones that counted. We prefer for our apprentices to discuss the option with their parents, so that they can make their opinion known and have a smoother transition for all involved, but your permission is not required.”

“They’re just little girls,” Jean said heartbrokenly. “You can’t take them away from their parents.”

“In most of the world, thirteen is or was recently considered an adult. It is when, even your faith, allows children to make their final decision about their spiritual needs. First communion, bar mitzvah, etc. That said, I have no intention of taking them away from you unless you force my hand. They are now mine as much as they are yours, and I have just as much right to them as you do. I’m willing to work with you to meet their needs, as long as you are willing to be reasonable.”

“Can you just…just give us the day…to think,” Jean asked hopefully, the beginnings of a plan already germinating in her mind. 

“That’s reasonable,” Loki said, standing from the chair. He turned to Astra and Raine. “If you are harmed in any way, pray for me immediately. Otherwise, I will see you tomorrow, alright?” 

“Okay Loki,” Raine said, hugging him tightly, followed by Astra. He hugged them back, pressed a kiss to each of their heads and then snapped his fingers and disappeared, unfreezing the adults with the same action. 

Both girls were then pulled into strangling hugs by their parents, and then marched into the kitchen and told to sit at the table. While Jean made coffee and breakfast, she and Bruce were whispering back and forth furiously, both ignoring the stewing children sitting at the table. If it hadn’t been for Loki’s lessons on holding their tongues and their tempers they would have blown long before the plates were set at the table in front of them and Carol was called out for breakfast too.


	5. Chapter 5

Once they finished eating breakfast, Jean told all three of the kids to go get their socks and shoes on. They were going out. Astra and Raine looked at each other nervously, but did as they were told. “You don’t think they’re trying to take us away somewhere do you?” Raine whispered, very conscious of the fact that their parents were nearby. 

“It doesn’t matter. Loki will be able to find us anywhere,” Astra reminded her just as quietly. 

Raine nodded in relief. Seeing the faith her sister had in that fact renewed her own. “So we play along?” Astra nodded. 

They were in the car a few minutes later, driving down the road. Their parents had still yet to say a word to them. “Where are we going?” Raine couldn’t help herself anymore. 

“You’ll see when we get there?” Jean said tightly. They could tell by the tone of her voice that they should stay quiet. 

About ten minutes later, they pulled into their church, and both girls looked at each other worriedly as they were pulled inside. Once they were in, Jean and Bruce told them to sit down and behave for a few minutes and they pulled the priest aside to talk to him. He had looked over at the twins more than once during their conversation and when it was over, their parents came to get them and they all followed the priest down the hallways. “You girls are gonna wait in here while we work some things out with Father Tom, okay?” Bruce told them, motioning them into the room. 

Both girls were so worried about themselves they didn’t notice their mother holding Carol back. After a second, Astra shrugged at her sister and headed into the room. It didn’t look like a torture chamber or anything so what could it hurt. She would keep playing along for now. Raine followed her, and as soon as they were both inside the door closed behind them and they heard the click of a lock. Raine ran for the door and tried to open it. “Mom? Dad?” she asked fearfully. 

“It’ll be okay sweetie. We’ll take care of everything. Just trust us,” Jean said heartbrokenly through the door. 

Astra pulled her away from the door. “She’s right. It’ll be okay. If they try to hurt us, we can call Loki.”

“Are you sure he can find us, even here?” Raine asked concerned. 

“He said he could find us anywhere. He didn’t say anywhere but a church, so yeah. Even if I’m wrong, we just wait for a chance to make a run for it and he can grab us when we get out of here,” Astra told her calmly. 

“What if we can’t find they way out?” Raine asked. They had been through so many twists and turns in the hallway, she wasn’t even sure where she was. 

“I remember how we got here. I was paying close attention. Don’t worry. I’ll get us out or Loki will. I promise.” Astra wasn’t nearly as calm as she was pretending to be, but she could tell how scared Raine was. They didn’t often play the ‘who’s older’ card, but Astra was still very much aware that she was the elder twin and at times like this, she felt the need to protect her more emotionally fragile sister. “See, it’s not so bad in here. This couch is pretty comfortable,” Astra said plopping down on it. 

Raine sat down delicately. “Do you think…maybe we should call Loki?” she asked. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. He said to call if they were hurting us and they aren’t. I don’t really want him to feel like he’s forced to take us away from Mom and Dad if we can avoid it,” Astra pointed out. 

“Yeah. Okay,” Raine agreed. She wasn’t sure if Loki would take their current behavior as a threat or not and remove them completely. As long as they were safe, they could give their parents time to deal with this. 

It was a few hours later before someone came back. Jean and Bruce asked the girls to follow them, so they could talk. Both girls breathed a sigh of relief at that. It seemed they were finally going to talk things out. Their nerves came back full force as they stepped into a large open area with some kind of chalk symbol on the floor. They were both pushed into the symbol by their parents who then backed far away. Another man who was dressed as a priest started chanting something and both girls doubled over with a pain in their chest. “Loki!” Astra cried out. 

The next thing any of them knew, both Raine and Astra were outside of the circle, and seemed to be hiding behind something that they couldn’t see. The new priest seemed to be continuing what he was doing, but it was having no affect on them now. The priest seemed a bit alarmed, but kept going. Astra turned to their mother and said as calmly as she could manage. “Loki said if you change your mind about wanting us to pray for him,” and then they disappeared. 

Bruce barely managed to catch his sobbing wife before she hit the floor. “My babies! He took my babies!” she cried. 

 

Loki reappeared in a small open living room with the two girls who were quickly falling apart. He scanned them over for any damage and realized that he had gotten to them quickly enough so he pulled them both into a warm hug as they cried on his shoulders. “It’s okay, little ones. You’re okay,” he said gently, rubbing their backs and pressing a kiss to each of their heads. 

“She...she lied to us…again,” Raine said between sobs. “She said…that we…were gonna talk…and then she…”

Astra had pulled herself out of her tears and let the bitterness wash over her. “Of course she did,” she said. “You know Mom never accepted us how we are. All she ever wanted for us to be normal. She doesn’t care that we never will be. We don’t need her.”

Loki reached out and ran a hand through her hair and down her cheek. He hated the anger that the girl was feeling, but had no idea how to help her. Not right now. If it didn’t resolve itself then he would step in, but for now, it was a coping mechanism and he could understand that. He had expected it even. For all that they were twins, Astra and Raine were very different girls. Raine’s sorrow and Astra’s resentment weren’t the slightest bit out of character for them. 

Raine was finally getting control of herself as he sobs trailed off into sniffles and Loki finally let her go. “Come here,” he told them, leading them into a small kitchen. “Let’s have some ice cream and then go take a walk huh?” he suggested, snapping his fingers and creating three large ice cream sundaes. Astra’s had hot fudge, peanut butter drizzle, and caramel and Raine’s had hot fudge, caramel, and coconut shavings and both had a generous helping of sprinkles. His own had a little of everything. Loki smiled as he saw their spirits rising. Nothing cheered a kid up like ice cream.

As they ate, Loki thought about what to do next. No matter what happened, these two would stay primarily with him from now on. He wasn’t going to give their parents a chance to make this mistake again. No way. If they prayed, he would go give them a piece of his mind, lay down the law, and if they could accept that, he would be willing to work out a supervised visitation deal, but they weren’t going to be alone with his girls again. At least not until they earned his trust back. 

After they ate, he took them outside and for a walk around his lands. He introduced them to the chickens, the horses, the goats, and so on. As the sun set, he snapped up a nice blanket and they sat down and he picked up where he’d left off before, teaching them about the stars. It wasn’t long before Astra interrupted him. “They look different here. Where are we?” she asked. 

“That’s a rather complicated question,” Loki told her. “Technically, we’re in a pocket dimension that occupies the same space as the earth. This is the outskirts of Asgard, where I live.”

“Awesome,” Astra said with a grin. She was determined to forget all about her traitorous parents and enjoy what she had. “When can we see the rest of Asgard?” 

“Once you’re confirmed at the apprentice ball during the equinox,” Loki told them. “That’s about three months away. In the meantime, I can show you more of earth, but as far as Asgard goes, you’re limited to our home.” Raine gave a little sniffle at the words ‘our home’. Loki reached out and put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. 

Loki kept things easy the next few days. They didn’t go anywhere or get into any heavy lessons, but instead spent their time riding horses, skipping rocks on the pond, stargazing at night, and just coming to terms with things in general. They had been there for three days when Loki received the prayer he’d been waiting on. They were sitting by the pond while the horses milled around nearby when he heard, ‘Loki, please. Bring me my babies back.’

“You girls hang out here. I’m gonna go out for a bit. If something happens shoot me a prayer, and be careful,” Loki told them. 

“Is everything okay?” Astra asked. He hadn’t left them alone here before. 

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I’ll let you know what’s up when I get back,” Loki told her. He didn’t want to get their hopes up or set them off again if nothing came of this, or have them worrying about it while he was gone. “I’ll be back soon,” he promised as he disappeared. 

Loki reappeared back in the house he was more than familiar with from his years with the twins. “Do you have any idea what you nearly did?” he snapped at the crying woman and her husband trying to comfort her. His anger at the situation was warring with his compassion for a crying woman, but the seriousness of what could have happened, had him not backing down. “The exorcisms your priests use are designed to cleanse a human soul, which is all well and good when someone is possessed by a demon, but they weren’t. Their souls aren’t human anymore either. If I hadn’t stopped that travesty when I did, it would have shredded their souls. Do you have any idea what that means?”

“W-what?” she asked, afraid of the answer, but knowing that she needed to know. 

“The soul is where emotion is found. Compassion. Empathy. Kindness. They would have become true monsters. I would have been forced to either put them down or watch them tear down this planet as their powers grow unfettered by any kind of conscience.”

“I-I’m sorry,” she cried. She was done fighting. She just wanted her babies back. This was all her fault. Bruce had wanted to take a calmer approach. She was the one who pushed. “Please…bring them back?” she begged. 

Now that he had gotten across the foolishness of their actions, he let himself soften. “I will not leave them in your hands again. I won’t risk it. I will bring them back to see you, every day if you want, but they won’t be alone with you and their primary residence will be with me. If you can accept that, then I will go get them.” She nodded profusely. She would do whatever it took. The last three days had been the worst of her life. “Alright. I’ll be back with them shortly. I should warn you, they aren’t very happy with you. You have a lot of work ahead of you to repair that relationship.”


	6. Chapter 6

Loki appeared back by the pond, to find both girls still sitting there. He wasn’t surprised. He hadn’t been gone all that long, after all. “You’re back! What happened?” Raine asked, first to notice him. 

“Your parents called,” Loki told them. A hopeful look came across Raine’s face and a scowl on Astra’s. “I’m not going to ask you to forgive them. They have a lot to make up to you first, but I will ask you to go at least a little bit easy on them. They’re very upset and look like they haven’t slept in days,” he felt the need to tell them. 

“Fine, but we need to get the horses put up first,” Astra said stubbornly. “There’s no reason they should suffer just because mom and dad finally decided to talk to us.”

Loki took a moment to consider whether it was worth the argument before he decided against it. It wouldn’t take them long to get the horses put up. The three of them rode back to the stables in about five minutes, Loki having challenged the kids to a race. He had to hurry them up when Astra kept trying to stall by taking forever, but he managed to keep things moving and the horses were unsaddled and had a quick brush down. He then took the girl’s hands and took them back to their parents. 

No sooner than they landed Jean choked out a sob and pulled them both into a hug, followed quickly by her husband. Neither of the girls were much into it, but Raine tentatively lifted her arms uncomfortably into the hug. Astra on the other hand just stood there stiff as a board, waiting for them to let go. When they finally pulled back, Jean reached out brush her hand down Astra’s cheek, but the girl just jerked away from the touch with a scathing look. “Baby, I’m so sorry. I was so scared for you…”

“And talking to us never occurred to you?” she snapped. “What am I saying, of course it didn’t. It never does.”

Wanting to show solidarity with her sister and not have her take the brunt of the crap for her attitude, had her chiming in with her own beef. “You lied to us. Twice. First by telling us we could do it while not believing us. Not trusting us. And then you lied to us and told us we would talk but you took us somewhere to hurt us.”

“We…” Jean paused at the pointed look from her husband and amended her statement. “I thought I was helping you. Saving you.” Both girls noticed the exchange between their parents, but they hadn’t needed that to know that their father had just been going along with what their mother decided. He always did. 

“We didn’t need saving, and if you had talked to us, you would have known that,” Astra told her. “Not that you would have listened anyway,” she muttered under her breath. 

“We have always listened to you,” Jean tried to defend herself, fully believing that until this unfortunate incident, that had been true. 

“No, you haven’t. You never listened to us and you never wanted us. But now we have someone who does,” Astra said imperiously. 

Jean gasped. “We’ve always wanted you!” 

“No, you haven’t. You’ve wanted the daughters you wanted us to be. Not the way we are,” Astra argued. This particular issue had been weighing on her mind for many years and now that Loki was standing behind her and willing to interfere, she finally felt safe enough to air it. 

Jean started to open her mouth to argue back, but Bruce’s hand on her arm stopped her. “Just listen to them, Jean. Then talk.” He turned back to the girls and asked gently, “Why would you feel that way?”

“You were always telling us to fit in. Be normal. Stop showing off, but I was never trying to show off,” Astra told them. When Jean couldn’t help but scoff, Astra’s face hardened even more, and she stormed out. 

“She’ll be right back,” Raine spoke up when it looked like they were going to go after her. “She’s right, you know. You never even gave us a chance to tell our side. You thought you knew what was going on and shut us down every time we tried to explain.”

About that time Astra came back and shoved a notebook in her mother’s hands. “That’s what I could do if I was trying to show off,” she snapped. 

Jean opened the notebook and flipped through it. “What…”

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to pretend to struggle with long division when tensor calculus comes so easily to me? How are word problems not supposed to be second nature when I can do advanced probabilities and statistics in my head? Pretending to be stupid is harder than it looks,” Astra said scathingly. 

“You always said it was our fault when people were mean to us because we didn’t try to fit in, but we tried,” Raine chimed in. “And even if that was true, how does that justify people stealing and destroying our property? Shoving Astra down the stairs. She could have died! But no. You get the limited story from the school that people tell while trying to stay out of trouble and don’t even bother to hear us out.” 

“I…I…I’m a horrible mother,” Jean finally managed to get out as her knees buckled underneath her. Bruce caught her and led her to sitting on the couch as she sobbed. 

Loki sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. So much for going easy on them. Then again, they did need their eyes opened and there might not have ever been a better opportunity while they were so vulnerable to it. It wasn’t like thirteen-year-olds understood much about tact and breaking news gently. “Why don’t you girls go to your room and find some things you want to bring with you to the homestead while I talk to your parents?” he suggested. The opened their mouths to argue, but a hard look from him stopped them in their tracks and they did as they were told. 

Once they were gone, Loki threw up an anti-eavesdropping ward, and went over and sat on the coffee table in front of them, putting a comforting hand on Jean’s knee. She looked up at him with a heart-broken look. “Why did you have to come and destroy my family? I wish you had just stayed away from us.”

“So that they could just keep bottling all this up and truly come to hate you later in life?” Loki asked gently before pointing out how much good he’d done. “If I’d never been a part of their lives, they would both be dead, you know. Astra when they did her heart surgery at three months old and Raine of the double pneumonia two years later.” 

“But she didn’t need that surgery,” Jean said automatically. 

“No. She didn’t. Because I wasn’t going to let them do it. I healed her heart for her first. Raine nearly died twice from the pneumonia but I brought her back both times and helped clear her lungs. Astra died on the operating table when she was eight and her appendix ruptured. I brought her back and helped her heal faster and kept most of her pain away. If I hadn’t been away at the time, I could have healed her before it even got that far.” Both parents were now looking at him wide-eyed. “I know it may not seem like it right now, but you’re being given an opportunity here. Yes, you’ve made mistakes, but it’s not too late to fix them.”

“But you won’t even let them live here anymore,” Jean said bitterly. 

“No. I won’t. And at least part of the reason for that is because it’s not necessary. If all this hadn’t happened, I would have let them for the most part, to make the transition easier, but think about it. They don’t need to sleep anymore. That’s ten to twelve hours a day that they have nothing to do. They don’t need to eat most food, so meals are pointless and in fact, the only thing that tastes right for them now are sweets which they need often to keep their metabolism up. The only thing they would gain from staying here is a relationship with their parents. Like I offered before, I will bring them by to see you every day if you want. We can even keep the same schedule they would have at school. Come by in the afternoons when they would get home and I’ll take them back at bedtime.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Why them though? Why our family?” Bruce asked. He needed the answer to that question before they could consider anything else. 

“Because it’s their destiny,” Loki told them. “Every so often, children are born with the potential to become demi-gods. When they are, a god is drawn to them, to watch over them and make a final decision. Sometimes, things happen over their lives that make them ineligible, and sometimes the children choose not to accept the offer, but neither of those happened in this case.”

“They’re too young to make that decision. Why not wait until they’re older?” Jean asked, finally having the conversation that they should have had to begin with. 

“Because it can’t be done when they’re older. Right now, their bodies are changing and growing due to puberty. During this time of change, additional changes can be added and incorporated into the process. Once they’re older, they won’t take the changes. Thirteen was decided as the best age. They are old enough to consider the consequences, but still able to take the changes.”

“Then it should be our choice. Not theirs. They’re still too young to make such serious decisions,” Jean argued. 

“So, they are to be forced to pass on such a life-changing opportunity because someone else made the decision for them? They should have their entire lives altered by another person’s choices? If it was something that COULD be done later, I might agree with you, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, that will last for eternity. They are the only ones with the right to make the decision. They are encouraged to discuss it with their parents so that your views are registered, and you have a chance to talk them out of it, but you just brushed them aside when they tried. What more could they have done?” 

Neither of the parents wanted to answer that question so they changed the subject. “So, you’ve been here their whole lives? You’ve had a relationship with my daughters that I didn’t even know about?” Bruce asked irritated. 

“I have been here their whole lives, off and on. I do have other things to do than follow them around every moment. They never knew about me until Astra was in the hospital for her appendix. Usually we make ourselves known on their twelfth birthday and spend the next year discussing the options, but I felt rather guilty about being away when Astra got sick and I only came back because of Raine’s frantic prayers. She was so scared and upset that I wanted to comfort her. She asked me to stick around and when Astra woke up, she also wanted me to. I knew it was too soon for you to know though so I waited until they were twelve before I told them to talk to you about it.” 

“You don’t think we should have known that some man was spending time alone with our daughters for years?” Jean asked. 

Loki closed his eyes and asked for patience. “First of all, what you are implying is so far off base that I shouldn’t even dignify it with an answer, but I will. No god…ever…would abuse a child in any way. Children are precious gifts and will always be treated as such. In an ideal world, yes, you would have known, but you would never have been able to see me. Not until they were confirmed as my apprentices. The risk of you having them committed for delusions and/or them being labeled as schizophrenic or something similar was too great.”

“You could have at least shown up once so that we would know you were real and prevent that,” Bruce countered. 

“No. I couldn’t. We gods have laws just like you humans do. One of those laws is designed to prevent gods from poaching each other’s followers. You worship another god, which means that I cannot interact with you at all. The only exception is when your children are my bonded apprentices and even now, I’m limited as to what I can talk to you about. Anything regarding them, their status, our customs regarding them, and so on is as far as I can go.” Technically, he could have appeared to them as Gabriel, but that would have caused more trouble than it was worth. 

“So, if we were to ask you about our god…”

“I can say nothing on the matter,” Loki told them with a note of finality. 

“I don’t even know where to start with them,” Jean sighed defeated. 

“I can see how much you love them. Anything else can be fixed,” Loki followed the turn of the conversation. “I suggest, that I take them back for now and you take some time to think about your next steps.”

“You’ll bring them back tomorrow right?” Jean asked hopefully.

“If you want me to, or I can give you a few days,” Loki offered. 

“No. Tomorrow is fine,” Bruce said quickly. They would do what they should have done from the beginning. Take a day to think about all this and where they go from here. 

“Alright. What time do you want us to come?” Loki asked. 

“How about lunchtime?” Jean asked. 

“It might be better after lunch,” Loki told them. “Since they don’t eat the same food as you anymore,” he reminded them. 

“Yeah. Okay. One o’clock?” Jean said, just trying to go with the flow for now. Loki nodded. “Will you…talk to them for us?” she asked hesitantly. “What if they don’t want to come?”

“I won’t try to force them into forgiving you. That’s their choice and your relationship to repair. I will offer my support to that process, but I won’t take your side against them in anything. When they’re being unreasonable, I will attempt to reason with them though. That’s all I can promise. If they don’t want to come, they will do it anyway, and I will make it clear that they are at least to treat you with civility. Anything more than that will be up to them.” Jean and Bruce nodded. It was more than they might have expected. He could easily take them away forever and not make them come home at all. 

“Can I ask…where you live?” Bruce asked.

“Asgard,” Loki told him. When he seemed to want more information, Loki said, “It’s another dimension. There isn’t a physical location on this world.” 

“So, we can’t come and visit them,” he said sadly. 

“Unfortunately not,” Loki replied. Technically, he could take them there for a visit, but as long as they worshipped another god, that would be outside his permitted interactions. When he saw that the conversation was over he stood up. “Girls!” he called, and they immediately ran into the room, each carrying a suitcase. 

“What are you taking?” Jean asked curiously. 

“Why? Want to make sure we aren’t stealing anything of yours?” Astra asked snottily. 

“Astra…” Loki warned. That was crossing a line and completely uncalled for. 

“Sorry,” she said looking down at the floor and handing the suitcase to her mother. 

She opened it and saw that it was full of books and a few toys. “You’re not taking any of your clothes?” she asked. 

“Styles in Asgard are very different than here,” Loki answered for them.

Raine handed her own suitcase over and there was a more even mix of toys and books, and Jean nodded. She wasn’t really worried about them taking things that didn’t belong to them. She just wanted to know what they were taking so she would know what was missing from their room before she was confronted with it. And at least a little of it was just being nosy. She pulled them each into a hug, one at a time, getting much the same reactions as before, and tried not to react when she saw how much warmer they were with their father. Not that they were particularly warm, but they weren’t nearly as frigid as they were with her. She couldn’t say she didn’t deserve it though. The whole church and exorcism plan was hers after all. Bruce had just gone along with it once he failed to talk her out of it. Not to mention the fact that he had little to do with their other issues as well. He generally just followed her lead when it came to the kids. “We’ll see you tomorrow,” she promised, getting a nod from both girls before they took Loki’s hands and disappeared.


	8. Chapter 8

Once they were back, Astra turned to Loki, “Are you really going to make us go back tomorrow?” 

“Yes. I am,” he said, holding up a finger to forestall any arguments. He motioned them to the table and snapped up some cake. As true tricksters they needed the sugar more than he did, but he would never turn down cake either. “They are still your parents and they love you…uh-uh. I’m talking. You’ll get your say when I’m done…You know that I’m on your side, always. You know how I feel about their mistakes and that’s what they were. Mistakes. No one is perfect. Least of all parents. Yes, they should have listened to you. No, they shouldn’t have gone behind your back. None of it was done to hurt you though. As misguided as they were, they thought they were helping you. They were acting from love, and now that they realize their mistakes, that should be taken into account. They deserve the chance to correct them, just as I give you the chance to correct your mistakes.”

“So, we’re just supposed to forget all of it?” Raine asked distastefully. 

“No. I’m not asking you to forget. Or even to forgive. That’s up to you. I’m just asking you to give them a chance to earn forgiveness. You can talk to them about all the stuff you hate, what you wished they had done. You can ask for explanations, but you will do so in a civil manner. It’s the same as when you disagree with me, I make you sit down and talk it out like we’re doing now. Not yell and throw tantrums like children.”

“Mom likes to yell,” Astra pointed out. 

“And if you want me to, I’ll intervene if she does and try to get her to talk instead,” Loki offered. When put that way it wasn’t really fair if he didn’t allow them to yell but had to sit there and get yelled at. 

“And if she still yells?” Raine asked. 

Loki sighed. There wasn’t really an easy answer here. “If she still yells, despite no one yelling at her, after she is asked not to, then and ONLY then may you respond in kind. If things get out of hand, we will leave and try again another day once tempers have cooled down. Can you live with that?” They both nodded. After their cake, they went out to play with the goats for a little while and relax before Loki started them on their lessons. For the time being they were learning politics and cultural studies mostly and things like math and science only a little. In a few months their brains would be changed enough to process the more difficult concepts of those two subjects, so for now, he was still working slowly with them. 

Once the sun came up the next morning, they went for another long leisurely ride on the horses, stopping at the pond as usual. “Are you worried about going to see your parents later?” Loki asked, not wanting them to bottle things up. Both girls nodded. “Why?” he asked, trying to coax them into talking about it. 

“What if they don’t change? What if everything just goes back to the way it was?” Raine asked sadly. 

“So, you’re afraid to get your hopes up?” Loki guessed, and she nodded. Loki put an arm around her and pulled her close, doing the same to Astra on his other side. “There is always a danger when you allow hope, but it’s usually worth it,” Loki told them. “Even if things don’t change, at least you know you tried. You know that it wasn’t your fault. That can be a comfort. If you just throw it away without giving it a chance, then you’ll always wonder if things might have been different.”

“So, we just give them the chance to hurt us again?” Astra chimed in. 

Loki smiled wryly. He had known that was the biggest reason for Astra’s attitude. She was wielding it like armor. “Yes, but you also give them the chance to make it better. I know they hurt you before, but it wasn’t like they were trying to hurt you. If they had been, then I would never make you go back. They wanted to help you. They still want to help you. Now that they know they were wrong before, they will find a new way. Will it be better? For that we can only have hope. If not, we will make them see that they are wrong again. Relationships and family can be difficult. It’s very different people coming together for a common purpose and they don’t always see things the same way. As long as everyone is willing to work together to find some common ground, it’s worth it. As long as they are willing to make an effort, you should be too. Understand?” Loki didn’t get an answer, but he didn’t expect one right away. He could tell that both girls were deep in thought. 

Astra finally decided to consider Loki words. She had mostly let them go in one ear and out the other last night, still too annoyed to think about it, but she was calmer now. At peace. She made a real effort to see things from her parents’ point of view. If they really had thought that she was showing off, then they might have been right to admonish her for it. If they really had thought that their retaliations had been for minor offenses, they might have been right in her punishments. She still thought they should have listened to them, but that was Loki’s point. They had messed up, but they had been trying to correct what they thought was bad behavior. They hadn’t just been trying to be mean. It didn’t change the fact that their parents didn’t know them at all, but maybe she could give them a chance to change that. She wasn’t going to suddenly be all lovey dovey, but she would try to be nicer. 

Raine, being far more emotional than her logical sister, was still hung up on the fact that her parents had lied to them, not trusted them, and pushed them away. They always said that lying was wrong, and then they did it. At least twice that she knew of, and now she was wondering how many other times they had been lied to. She had forgiven the whole Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy lies, since they were obviously things that all parents told their children, but this was different. This was serious. They always told her that family should always trust family, but they never trusted their children. They believed other people instead. How was that right? She would do as Loki asked and give them a chance to change, but if they didn’t, she was done trying. 

Loki gave it a little while before he snapped them out of their thoughts and they took the horses back to the barn, taking their time to give them a good thorough brushing this time to make up for their haste yesterday. Once that was done, they had time for a nice snack before they had to leave. No sooner than they appeared in the living room, they were nearly tackled by Carol, and her they hugged warmly. It wasn’t her fault their parents were idiots, and as much as she annoyed them, she was still their sister. Once she let go, they were hugged by their parents, and this time, they hugged them back. It was tentative and more than a little cold, but it was there. 

“Your sister missed you a lot. Why don’t you go play with her for a little while and we’ll all talk later,” Jean suggested. She wanted to talk to Loki a little more. 

Neither girl was fooled by her motives, but they wanted to spend some time with Carol anyway, so they agreed. As they were headed outside, Loki called over, “Don’t forget your strength.” They both nodded at him before continuing outside. 

“Their strength?” Bruce asked curiously. 

“Part of the changes their bodies are going through gives them a kind of super-human strength. It’s going up gradually to give them a chance to adjust, so it’s not that much more yet, but it’s still enough to hurt a little girl if they start rough-housing and aren’t careful,” Loki explained. Jean looked nervously at the door. “They’ll be careful, and if anything does happen, I’ll heal it,” he promised, and she relaxed. Loki plopped down on the chair, also not fooled about why they sent the kids outside. 

“Is this something we’re going to have to go through again with Carol in a few years?” Jean asked, halfway hoping that the answer was yes. 

“No,” Loki told them. “Carol doesn’t have the potential.”

“So, she is just supposed to live the rest of her life in the shadow of her demi-god sisters?” she asked worriedly. 

“If that’s how she chooses to look at it instead of being happy for her sisters and proud of their accomplishments,” Loki said evenly. 

“How is that fair?” Jean asked. She knew that Carol wanted to be just like her big sisters, and now they were leaving her behind in such a way that she could never keep up. 

“How many times have you told Astra and Raine that life isn’t fair? Or does that only apply to them?” he asked pointedly. He’d seen how much the couple in front of him had spoiled their youngest, going so far as to force her sisters to include her. He didn’t actually disagree with it for the most part, but they had to understand that there were lines now that weren’t there before.

“Of course, it doesn’t only apply to them. But this is something that she can never have, and I don’t know how to explain that to her,” Jean said sadly. 

“It’s no different than Astra’s brilliance or Raine’s empathy. She is a different person than them with different strengths. Part of the problem you have is that you’ve always tried to make them all the same, but there is a difference between being the same and being equal. They can all have equal standing and still be able to shine in their own ways. I’m not saying that this will be an easy situation, but it is the way it is,” Loki told her. 

Jean nodded. She could see his point, and had realized since being beaten over the head with it yesterday, that he was right. She had been suppressing her daughters’ talents for the sake of equality with not only their sister, but other kids as well.


	9. Chapter 9

“Okay, so what other kinds of changes can we expect to see? You mentioned something about powers before? What kinds of lessons do they have?” Jean asked. Now that they had no choice but to accept it, she wanted to know everything. 

“Well I already mentioned the strength. I’ll be working with them on that. We have a lot of animals at the homestead, so they’ll get constant experience with moderating that. Their speed, eyesight, and hearing will also be enhanced. That’s also a gradual thing. Any time we have a private conversation I’ll put up wards to keep them from eavesdropping, so just let me know anytime you don’t want them to hear something. They’ll always be the most healthy version possible of themselves. They were pretty healthy to begin with, so you probably won’t notice any changes. They’ve all been very minor. For example, they were both getting slightly near-sighted and probably would have needed glasses within the next couple years, otherwise, it’s basically just been a minor reduction in fat in a few places. Barely noticeable.”

“What kind of animals?” Bruce asked curiously. He’d always been a big fan of animals. 

“We have horses, goats, and chickens,” Loki told him. “The girls love to ride, as I’m sure you know.” Bruce nodded. He did know. His father-in-law had horses and they never passed on an opportunity to saddle them up. “So as far as powers, they’ll be capable of small scale creation. Nothing like whole worlds or galaxies or anything, but little things. They’ll also be capable of conjuration…”

“What’s the difference?” Jean asked confused. 

“Conjuration is temporary. It’s more like creating something for a purpose and then it disappears and doesn’t have to be perfect. Creation is exact and permanent. Or at least as permanent as what they create. For example, creating a candy bar and eating it they could get the same nourishment from a normal candy bar, but if they conjure it, then it would look right and taste right, but not be quite right and depending on the strength they use in the conjuration, the pieces could disappear before they’re even digested. The third stage of that is illusions. That’s something that looks real, but isn’t even solid. They’re all three different branches of the same general principle.” 

“Will they be able to use this against us?” Jean asked nervously. She was generally nervous about her daughters pranks even without all these extra powers. 

“It will be a while before they’re able to access them to that degree at all, but when they are, I’ll make sure that they don’t do anything harmful or particularly devious. I won’t stop a little lighthearted fun, though,” he said with a grin. They were tricksters after all. That seemed to be good enough because they relaxed a fraction. “They will also be able to heal to some degree, both themselves and others. Teleport, wield at least one element, limited uses of dimensions and time, stuff like that.”

“Dimensions and time?” Bruce asked. 

“They’ll be able to create smaller pocket dimensions and change the passage of time in them. They’ll be able to travel in time, but not too far, and they won’t be able to change anything that’s already happened. Again, this is something that’s years away before their powers grow enough to accomplish it.”

The fact that they would be much older before having control over such dangerous powers did make them feel better. “What about within the next year, what will they be able to do?” Jean asked. 

“They are already capable of healing themselves, and will, within the next couple months be capable of healing minor injuries on others. By the end of the first year, they should reach the peak of their healing ability and be able to heal all but genetic or chronic illnesses like cancer or down’s syndrome. Mental illnesses will also be outside their ability. They will be able to work with creation, conjuring and illusion on the smallest scale by the end of a year. Like the ability to create a candy bar or conjure a kitten or make an illusion of their appearance. They’ll be able to teleport short distances by line of sight. Maybe beginning to access their elements, but not necessarily. That usually comes anywhere between one and two years after the ceremony. All of their physical changes, the strength, speed, eyesight, and hearing will be complete by the end of the first year though. That’s when the more active powers come into play since it’s not going towards that anymore.” 

“Okay, so what about lessons?” Jean asked. 

“Right now, they are mostly learning politics and cultural studies relating to Asgard and the other hierarchies of gods, as well as our relationships to each other. They’ll also move on to an overview of the same for other worlds…”

“Other worlds like aliens?” Bruce asked excitedly. 

Loki couldn’t help but chuckle at his enthusiasm. “Yep. There are countless worlds out there. They’ll never learn all of them, but they’ll still get a basic overview and it will be on them to study more in-depth anywhere they want to visit.”

“Could they take us with them?” Bruce asked. 

“Unfortunately not,” Loki told them. “Transporting mortals to other worlds is essentially like human trafficking here and carries heavy penalties.” He wasn’t going to mention that people of earth were essentially seen as the bogeymen to other worlds with how often and in how many different ways they destroy each other. There was no need to go there. Bruce was disappointed enough already, but Loki didn’t miss the way Jean rolled her eyes at him. “They are also learning the last bit of earth knowledge of sciences and maths…what you all have correct anyway…and starting into things beyond that. I’m going slow on that though because their minds are still expanding to be able to comprehend things on that scale. The main focus at the moment is getting them up to par culturally to be able to function in our society. Then we’ll move on to more inclusive lessons.”

“So, the society is very different?” Jean asked.

“Oh yes. Probably the biggest differences on the surface is that it is much more inclusive. No one is looked down or treated differently because of their strengths or weaknesses or what gender they love or the color of their skin or where they came from. For example, no Asgardian child would persecute Astra because of her intelligence or Raine because she’s a tomboy. If men want to wear dresses, no one looks twice at them for it. Also, violence is all but unheard of. Even when people take issues with each other, there are no brawls in the streets. In extreme cases, it’s settled by battle, but it’s a planned and organized thing, more similar to your boxing than war. More often, people with differences just avoid each other or snark at each other.”

“That sounds nice,” Jean said, surprised at that. She would never have guessed that. 

“I think we’re about to have company,” Loki said with a smile as he heard the pattering feet running inside. “We’re okay now?” 

“I still don’t like it, but since I don’t have a choice, I’ll deal with it,” Jean told him. 

“Good enough,” Loki said with a nod as the kids got back to the room. The rest of the afternoon was spent catching up. Astra and Raine talked a lot about their lessons and what things were like at the homestead, as they called Loki’s place. They told their parents all about their favorite horses and how they got to ride every day. More than once Carol jumped in and wanted to be a part of it, but Jean just kept putting her off. They would have that conversation another time when they were alone. Astra and Raine had decided to save the argument for when Carol went to bed and just enjoy spending time with their family for now. Playing with Carol had calmed them down and they realized how much they missed her. 

Once she was in bed, tucked in by her big sisters, Loki could tell by the looks on their faces that they weren’t going to put things off much longer. “Why don’t we head to the kitchen,” Loki suggested, planning to ply them with sugar to help the process along. It had been long enough since they joined in with dessert after dinner that their hunger was probably making them pretty cranky as it was. There was no reason to add fuel to the fire. Loki snapped up large ice cream sundaes for himself and the girls. 

Jean winced. “It’s going to take some getting used to watching them eat that much sugar all the time.” 

“Well if you want us around, you’re gonna have to get used to it,” Astra said digging in to her ice cream. 

“Astra, remember what we talked about,” Loki warned. 

“Sorry,” she muttered. 

“I’m not the one you should be apologizing to,” Loki said pointedly. 

“Sorry, mom,” Astra said sounding almost sincere. 

Jean sighed and said what she needed to say. “I understand why you’re reacting defensively to everything I say. I realize now how much I’ve wronged both of you over the years, and I say again, I’m sorry. I have made mistakes, but I am trying to fix them. I know it might take some time before things are the way they were before, but I don’t like being talked to that way regardless.”

“We’ll be nicer as long as you are,” Raine promised glaring at her sister until she nodded. They had promised to try at least. “But you have to promise that you won’t lie to us again either. About anything.”

“There are some things you don’t need to know,” Jean pointed out. 

“Then tell us that,” Astra said in an almost agreeable tone. “We aren’t babies. If it’s none of our business or our concern, then we can accept that. If it involves us though, we have a right to know whether you think we’re old enough to know or not.”

“Yeah. You don’t have to tell us everything, but don’t lie to us, again. You always said how wrong it was to lie, but you keep doing it to us and we won’t accept it anymore,” Raine added.

Jean and Bruce looked at each other and nodded. That was relatively easy to agree to. “Okay. We promise.” There were a few more grievances aired out but by the time the twins had finished their oversized sundaes, the family was well on its way to healing and the three tricksters headed home after making their plans to visit the next day.


	10. Chapter 10

Over the next few weeks, things continued to go well and they settled into a routine of sorts. Mornings were spent relaxing and having fun, usually riding and playing with the animals, afternoons and evenings with their parents, and nights doing lessons. Astra and Raine were blossoming in the environment. They did look forward to meeting other god and demi-god kids, but they definitely didn’t miss the human children who tormented them. None of them noticed the black crow that seemed to fly high above them often whenever they were outside at the homestead, until one day she flew down and landed on Raine’s shoulder. 

Loki came around the corner right about then and stopped short at the sight. “Lady Crow,” he said with a respectful nod. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your presence?” The crow cocked her head sideways and gave Loki a look like it should be obvious. “You have chosen her as your companion?” he guessed. She hopped off Raine’s shoulder and to Astra’s. “Both of them?” he asked in shock. The crow looked at him like he was an idiot for doubting that fact. 

“Lady Crow?” Astra asked curiously. 

“She’s been around since the very beginning. She was Buri’s familiar. He was Odin’s great grandfather. Since he died back before the pagan peoples were even organized, she has never chosen another companion. Most thought she never would, but it seems she has now,” Loki gave them a mini history lesson. 

“Wow. That’s awesome!” Raine said turning to the crow on her sister’s shoulder. “Thanks for picking us Lady Crow. We promise we’ll be good to you.”

“I’m guessing you girls want to spend the morning with your new friend?” Loki assumed amusedly, seeing how they both were suddenly enamored with the bird, showering her with attention. Seeing that they didn’t even notice him speaking, he just chuckled and headed back inside. 

Once he was gone, Crow said, “It has been a long time since I have seen such an amusing set of demi-gods.”

“You can talk!” Astra said excitedly. 

“Of course, I can. Just don’t tell your mentor,” she said. 

“How come?” Raine asked. 

“Because I have seen him play tricks on people for as long as he’s been here. I think we should play a little trick on him in return,” Crow said giving what could only pass for laughter from the bird. Both girls giggled along with her. They didn’t like keeping secrets from Loki, but tricks were different. He always said they couldn’t trick him, but they were going to prove him wrong. 

They quickly learned that Crow loved berries so spent a good portion of the morning at the berry bushes throwing them in the air while Crow chased them and they all had a ball. When they weren’t throwing berries, Crow told them stories about the old days, farther back than any of the living gods could remember. Too soon, it was time to go. “Will you come with us to our parent’s house?” Raine asked. 

“If you would like me to, young one,” Crow told her. 

“We would. Very much,” Astra assured her. 

Their parents quickly noticed the new addition on their shoulder and immediately asked about it. “This is Crow. She’s our new familiar,” Raine told them. “She chose us just this morning.”

“That’s…” Jean looked at Loki who nodded that it was okay. “Nice,” she finished. 

“Can I have a bird too?” Carol piped up reaching to pet Crow who didn’t seem very happy about it, but allowed it. At least until Carol pulled on feather and she cawed loudly and took flight, irritating Carol greatly. “I’m sorry birdie. Please come back,” she asked. When Crow just perched at the top of the highest cabinet she turned towards her sisters. “Make it come back.”

“We don’t tell her what to do. SHE is our familiar, not our pet. She just doesn’t really liked being touched by other people,” Astra explained. 

“Mom!” Carol whined, turning to her mother for help. 

Jean looked at the Astra and Raine who didn’t look they planned to budge and then to Loki who said, “They’re right. A familiar is something special and not someone to order around. They are more like an extra teacher or a friend than a pet.” 

“I’m sorry, honey,” Jean said turning to Carol. 

Carol huffed. “Fine. Then I’m gonna get my own bird and I won’t let you play with it either,” she pouted and stormed to her room. Once she was gone, Crow flew back down and landed on Astra’s shoulder. 

“Would it be wrong of me to ask you to leave her home next time, if she won’t play with Carol too?” Jean asked. At the dark looks from her daughters she backtracked a bit, “Or is that a bad thing for a familiar?” 

“It’s not the best thing, but it’s not unreasonable,” Loki said, shooting the girls a warning look. There was no need to make trouble over something minor. “It might be better for us to just start appearing outside and letting Lady Crow fly while we’re here.”

Just the fact that this god was calling the bird Lady Crow was enough to tell them that there was more here than they could understand and she quickly agreed to the compromise. Raine smiled in relief and rushed to take Crow outside. “We’ll come get you before we leave,” she promised. 

“That is fine. I can explore for a while. Just call for me when you are ready,” she told her and took to the skies. 

“She’ll be safe right?” Jean asked, not sure what kind of powers this crow might have. “I ask because there are neighbors who shoot crows when they see them.”

Astra hadn’t thought of that and looked to Loki in alarm. “She’ll be fine. I’m honestly not sure what human weapons will do to her, but I doubt they can hurt her. On the off chance that they do, your bond with her will bring her right back to you and we can get her healed up,” he promised. 

None of them planned to go after Carol right now. Jean and Bruce had explained how her sisters would be able to do things that she couldn’t and had been trying to make it up to her as much as they could, but there was only so much they could do without crossing the line into outright spoiling her. Astra and Raine had been trying to include her as much as possible when they visited, but it was never enough, and it was hurting them all. No one knew what else they could do about it though. Other than that issue, their visit went well. Despite the ever-widening distance with their sister, they were getting closer to their parents again, so much so that they didn’t immediately say no when they were asked to go on the normal family vacation in two weeks before school started back up. 

“We can’t leave Crow for a whole week,” Astra told her. 

“We’ll work it out,” Jean promised. “Maybe she could spend most of her time with you at night?”

Astra and Raine looked at each other. “We’ll ask her,” they agreed before they turned to Loki. “What do you think?” 

Loki had sworn when he took them in that they wouldn’t be alone with their parents again, after what happened, but things had been going well. They had shown that they could accept this, and he doubted they would make the same mistakes again. That didn’t make him any less nervous though. “I don’t see why not, as long as you want to. I can give you homework to do at night while everyone’s sleeping so you don’t disturb anyone, and we can make sure to pack plenty of sweets for you while you’re gone.”

“Can we pack extra for Carol too?” Raine asked. When her mother cleared her throat, she added, “For when Mom says she can have some.”

“Of course, we can,” Loki agreed easily, knowing that they planned to sneak their sister some anyway. 

Crow easily agreed to spend more time with them at night. She didn’t need to sleep any more than they did, so it hardly mattered to her. She was definitely curious about the beach, especially when she learned that there are all kinds of birds there that she’d never seen before. 

It was a few days before they were due to leave on their trip, when they finally got the opportunity to play their prank on Loki. They were sitting at the pond and they suggested bringing bread and berries to feed the ducks, like they would be feeding the seagulls at the beach. Loki found it an interesting idea so they did so. The girls, in between throwing food for the ducks, fed a few berries to Crow. Loki noticed that, and offered Crow a berry too. “I’m not eating that! Who knows where your hands have been!” she said sticking her beak in the air imperiously. 

The look of shock on Loki’s face, both at the fact that the bird talk and the fact that she’d sassed him at the same time, had both girls rolling with laughter. “We got you!” Raine teased through her laughter. 

Loki let out a chuckle before he pounced on her tickling her mercilessly for a moment before switching to the other girl. It didn’t take long before they were crying uncle prompting Crow to sink her talons in the back of Loki’s shirt with an, “Unhand my girls, you ruffian!” as she used her own powers to carry him over the pond and drop him in, giving her own birdie laughter all the while. 

Loki reappeared back on the bank a moment later and stripped his shirt off to wring it out on the still rolling girls who squealed at the sudden shower of cold water. “Oh, you’re all gonna pay for this,” he promised mischievously.


	11. Chapter 11

Loki hadn’t yet gotten them back by the time they went on their trip, but the looks he kept giving them were making them nervous. He had yet to prank them with anything big, and they belatedly realized that they may have opened the flood gates. They were both dreading and looking forward to what was coming down the line. Oh well. At least it would be fun. 

Loki gave them plenty of homework for their trip to fill their nights while everyone else was sleeping. The campground they were staying at was rather nice, as campgrounds go. There was a full bathhouse not far from their campsite, a pool and a playground at one corner and there was even an inlet on the side with piers for them to play. It was the same campground they always came to twice a year. At the beginning of summer vacation and the end of summer vacation. 

There were two tents. Their parents and Carol shared a tent and the twins shared the other one. At night they were supposed to stay in their tent and not go wandering and they did, for the most part. Over the course of the week, there were a few midnight swims in the pool and walks around the inlet, but they were never gone for more than an hour or two at the most. Usually, when they left their tent it was to lay outside and do some stargazing. They still managed to get all their work done. Loki had given them a paper on the formation of Asgardian society, the history of Asgard, interpersonal relations among all the pagan peoples, and they had to draft formal apologies to someone at three different levels of society, including one to King Odin and the high court. He told them that they would need them eventually and it wouldn’t hurt to have something on hand. Despite finding the idea amusing, they completely agreed. 

That week was like a healing balm for the family. Most of them anyway. Carol was getting more and more distant from her sisters. She spent the majority of her time out running around the campground with her new friends. She always had been very good at making friends everywhere she went. When she was spending time with the family she was always glued to her sisters’ sides. They were understandably confused by her actions. Sometimes it seemed she didn’t want anything to do with them and others she clung to them. They found it rather irritating, but did their best to keep the peace, reminding themselves that it was just for a week. 

By the time they returned with Loki the night before Carol would be starting school, they found out what revenge he had planned. They had been dropped off a few feet away from Loki and suddenly found themselves sinking in quicksand. Loki laughed at them and tsked, “Now, now. You should know that the more you struggle, the faster you sink.” It didn’t take long at all for them to be submerged up to their necks and they stopped sinking at that point. They still couldn’t get out though. Loki walked over and patted them on the heads condescendingly. “Okay. Time for lessons,” he said cheerfully, sitting down on the ground in front of them, seemingly oblivious to their glares. 

He conducted the entire lesson like that and, worst of all, fed them like babies, complete with baby talk commentary, despite their complaints. Once the sun came up, he got up, ending the lessons and started to walk off. “Wait! Loki! You can’t just leave us here!” Astra yelled after him. 

He turned around and smirked at them, mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “It’s about time you started learning to teleport anyway,” he told them, whistling as he walked away. 

Raine turned to her sister and said, “Oh this is war now.”

“Definitely,” Astra agreed with a nod. “Total war. No quarter.”

Now that they knew HOW to get out, it only took them about an hour before they saw some results. Astra managed to flicker in place. That small success gave Raine the confidence she needed to take it a little further. She moved ahead about three inches, but unfortunately was still in the quicksand. They both redoubled their efforts and managed to make it out about half an hour later and headed for the stables with a head full of steam. 

They got there to see their horses already saddled up and Loki waiting for them. “Took you long enough,” he quipped as he swung himself up in his own saddle and took off towards the pond, both girls hot on his heels. Once they approached the pond, they saw Loki sitting there on his horse, smug look on his face and he theatrically snapped his fingers. Both girls braced themselves for what was coming and found themselves launched off the horses and landing in the middle of the pond. They surfaced spluttering to find a laughing Loki. “And now you’re clean from all that nasty quicksand.” 

They pulled themselves out of the water and tackled the god, starting an all out tickle war. Thanks to their teamwork, they soon had Loki on the defensive. Not long after they had finally collapsed after that, they saw Crow flying over. Loki looked up when she got close and asked, “Enjoy your berries?” Crow responded by pooping on his head, which just made him laugh harder. Loki had modified all the berries in the area to taste very much not like berries. He had put a variety of unsavory flavors into them and Crow’s displeasure was obvious. 

That began the prank war to end all prank wars. The girls and Crow were helplessly outmatched given the amount of control Loki had over his powers in contrast to their barely there powers. He never went as far as he did for that first prank once they were back though. He did try to give them at least a fighting chance, but there was more than once that they ended up going to visit their family while sporting a wide variety of colors. Their dark blonde hair had been turned more colors than they ever knew existed, often multiple colors at once. Even their skin had suffered the same treatment. Their parents took it in stride, never quite sure how to react, but Carol thought it was hilarious. 

Finally, they called a truce about a week before the annual apprentice ball. Loki mentioned it to their parents, knowing that things like that meant a lot to parents, so wanted to give them a chance to be involved. He even offered to let them help the girls get ready beforehand. When they wanted to help pick out their clothes too, Loki snapped up some catalogues of options and the whole family sat down to go through them. It didn’t take long at all for Astra and Raine to put their collective feet down. “We don’t want to wear some poofy dress.”

Loki blinked at them for a moment. He knew that they both tended more towards tomboys, but somehow he had thought a formal ball would be different. “Okay, so is that a nay on all dresses or just the poofy ones?” he asked. 

“All dresses,” Raine said firmly. 

“Okay. Let’s take a look at the men’s styles then,” Loki said snapping up another catalogue and handing it over. 

“But this is a fancy ball,” Jean argued. “You should really wear a dress. At least this once.” The withering glare from both girls had her throwing up her hands in defeat. Loki just laughed at that. He knew exactly how stubborn his little apprentices could be and had a habit of picking his battles. This wasn’t one that was worth fighting. It hardly mattered what they wore. 

They started flipping through the catalogue and their faces just scrunched up more and more. “This is what guys wear?” Astra asked skeptically. 

“That’s the formalwear for men, yes,” Loki told them honestly, knowing exactly what they were thinking. It wasn’t all that different from the women’s dresses. It took hours before they finally settled on something. They would each be wearing a silk tunic with a vest and breeches and an overrobe in a style that closed at the waist and flared out around the bottom. Astra’s overrobe and tunic would be in a deep silver color with the vest and breeches a midnight blue and Raine would be wearing the same thing in reverse, a midnight blue overrobe and tunic and silver vest and breeches. 

“Can I change my hair too?” Astra asked. 

“What?” Raine said wide-eyed looking at her. 

“I wanted to get my hair cut short,” Astra explained. 

“But I don’t want short hair,” Raine argued. 

“You don’t have to,” Astra told her. 

“But we’re twins! We’re supposed to look alike!” 

Loki could tell that they were headed for a meltdown, so he stepped in. “You’ll still look alike. You’ll just have different hair. Everyone will still be able to tell that you’re twins. I promise.”

“But we can’t switch places anymore if our hair is different,” Raine told him. 

“I’ll teach you how to switch your hair when you want to. How’s that?” he suggested hopefully. Raine crossed her arms and pouted, but nodded. Crisis averted, Loki snapped up another little magazine with different short hairstyles for Astra to look through with her parents while they ate the pie that he also snapped up. By the time they finished eating, Astra had decided on a hairstyle that her mother didn’t look too happy with but conceded. After showing it to Loki, he snapped his fingers and her hair was now buzzed on the sides and back with a punky style poof at the top. Raine huffed at it, refusing to admit that it looked nice. Jean, on the other hand, relaxed once she saw how well the style fit her daughter and told her so.


	12. Chapter 12

The night of the ball came around, and both girls were getting ready in their old room, helped by their mother, and supervised by Loki. Except when they were changing of course. Then he waited outside. He did help them with their overrobes though. They were rather difficult to get to set right and keep straight with the belt. Once they were dressed, Jean started talking about makeup. “But mom. We don’t want to wear makeup.”

“What is makeup?” Loki asked curiously. 

“It’s stuff designed to enhance the looks. Like lipstick to make the color of their lips brighter or even different colors, blush to make their cheeks pink, eye shadow to put color over their eyes and make them pop. Stuff like that.”

“Why?” Loki asked. “What is the purpose of changing their appearance?”

“Well…because…um…it looks pretty?” 

“You don’t think they look pretty enough without it?” Loki asked confused. 

“Well, no. Of course they do. It’s just something that girls always do when going out to someplace fancy like this. I’m sure ladies in Asgard do something similar.”

“I’ve never heard of it. It’s not something any of my wives have ever done. I’ve never seen anyone alter their appearance for functions,” Loki told her. Goddesses were naturally beautiful. They didn’t need or want such things. 

“Oh. Well…I guess we can leave it off then,” Jean said biting her lip. She didn’t want her girls to seem strange, but the idea of going to a ball without makeup was just so foreign to her. Of course, going to a ball for gods in another dimension was foreign to her too, so she decided to bow to Loki’s expertise on this matter. “And you’re sure there won’t be a problem with them wearing boy’s clothes?” she asked for the tenth time. 

“Positive. Those sorts of things don’t really matter,” Loki assured her again. 

“Okay,” she said with a nod. “So, you girls behave yourselves tonight. No pranks, no tricks. Just be the nice cultured ladies I know you can be.”

Loki groaned. “Please don’t embarrass me by being well-behaved.” Jean looked at him in shock and Loki looked at her wryly. “I am the trickster. The god of mischief and chaos. The idea of my own apprentices being perfect little angels is just…” he shuddered at the thought. 

Jean just shrugged. “Okay, then play lots of pranks, trick everyone you see and cause plenty of chaos?” she both told the girls and asked Loki. 

Loki nodded, and added, “And if you can get one over on King Odin during the formal presentation ceremony on the stage, I’ll give you a special treat.” 

“Awesome!’ Astra said. She already had plenty of plans. 

“We need supplies,” Raine told her and suddenly they were rummaging through the house looking for some. 

The inner pockets on their robes were as full as they could be without being obvious, but there was still one more thing that Astra wanted that she couldn’t find, so she decided to ask Loki to make it for her. Ten minutes later, after she had finished explaining the concept and how it should look, she was pinning a large blue flower on her robe, the bladder tucked up against her skin and it was time to go. 

They greeted the doorman sweetly, each on one of Loki’s arms as they headed inside. They had arrived about ten minutes before the opening dance was about to start and they spent all of that time looking around in awe and refining their plans for the evening. They had practiced their dancing often over the last few months and had it down pat. Since there were two of them and only one of Loki, it had taken a bit of trial and error to plan. 

When the dance started, Astra and Loki took their positions as Raine stood next to them. As Astra and Loki spun around the floor, Raine did her own dance. It was about thirty seconds into the song when Raine pulled a hand out of her pocket and dropped something to the floor, unnoticed. A few seconds later a dancer nearby screamed and hit the floor, pulling her partner down with her. No one ever noticed the marble rolling off the dance floor in the ruckus. 

Not long after that, they switched partners, and Raine was incorporated easily into Loki’s dance midstep while Astra took to her own dance. They happened to be near the drink table during the switch so Astra surreptitiously grabbed a piece of ice from the bucket and held it in her hand to start it melting for a bit before she dropped it to the floor, downing another set of dancers. 

During the next switch Raine stepped it up a bit and dropped four marbles to the floor at once followed by the old classic banana peel. That was the first clue anyone had that someone was doing this on purpose and Astra had to be a little sneakier to get her marbles and banana peel dropped without being seen, and it was almost the end of the song before she managed. Of the sixteen apprentices and their mentors, not counting them, at least ten of them had taken a tumble at some point during the song and Loki was already getting suspicious looks. Both he and his apprentices acted the picture of innocence though. Not many people believed it, of course, but they knew better than to say anything. Loki could talk his way out of anything. 

Now that the opening dance was over, the floor was open to anyone as were the food and drink tables. The girls quickly split up, Astra diving under the drink table before anyone saw her and pulled out the tube of Vaseline from her pocket and started spreading it on the floor. No one noticed the little hand peeking out from under the table. She had just hopped out from under it and was heading for the food table when the first person fell, taking the whole drink table with them and ending up soaked. 

While Astra was rigging the drink table, Raine was working on the food. She quickly pulled four cupcakes from the tray, putting them on two plates for her and her sister while her other hand was using the hidden packet of hot sauce and dribbling it over the remaining cupcakes. Astra met up with her in time to put her own syrup of ipecac in the soup and then they lingered over the sandwiches tray for a long moment as they hid fake bugs underneath them. 

Loki grabbed his own plate of cake, cupcakes, pie, and ice cream the second he was able, knowing that the girls were planning something for the food and not wanting to get caught out. As such he was standing to the side watching them, marveling at their cool. They really just looked like they were deciding on what food to get and loading their plates. Only the fact that he knew better gave him a clue that they were up to something. 

By the time they were making their way back to Loki with their full plates, the drink table had already been righted three times and they were grinning like loons. There weren’t that many people eating yet, but that was okay. It was better to spread everything out a little more anyway. As they finished their food, Raine turned to Loki. “You said you would point out Baldr when we got here.” Both girls were eager for a little payback upon hearing of the longstanding feud between Loki and Baldr. 

Loki grinned at them and looked around for a moment before turning back to him. “Back left corner, yellow overrobes, long black hair.” 

They turned to look, getting their prey in their sights and then nodded to Loki as they went to mingle with the other kids and wait for an opportunity. Astra was having a lot of fun asking people to smell her flower and spraying them with water that had blue food coloring in it. By the time they spied an opportunity to get to Baldr, there were quite a few blue faced kids running around. Their plan called for Baldr to be out in the open and not talking to anyone at the time. The girls split up and circled him. Raine walked up in front of him and smiled brightly. “Hi. I’m Raine,” she said cheerfully. 

“Hello Raine. It’s nice to meet you,” Baldr said with a smile. 

While Raine was distracting him, Astra snuck up behind him and poured a packet of itching powder down his back collar at the same time as she tapped him on the shoulder. “And I’m Astra,” she said as he turned to look at her, giving Raine the chance to sprinkle her own itching powder on his food. They decided that it would probably be even more uncomfortable to itch from the inside. By the time he finished greeting them, he was having trouble ignoring the sudden itching in his back and went back to lean against the wall for some relief, rubbing himself against it often while he finished eating. 

It was about that time that the first scream issued from the food table as someone had grabbed the wrong sandwich and revealed one of the hidden bugs around the same time that someone rushed out of the room, vomit spurting between closed fingers trying to hold it in. The drink table had still not stayed upright for more than a few minutes at a time and a large portion of the guests had been forced to dry themselves off at some point. There were a lot of hastily abandoned cupcakes laying around, and even Loki was having trouble containing his mirth at the chaos.


	13. Chapter 13

“I should have known that things would go haywire when I found out you were coming,” Loki heard a voice from behind him. He turned around to find Thor standing there looking rather amused and with the telltale frizzy hair from having dried himself off. 

“Thor. Great to see you!” Loki said pulling his adopted brother into a hug, and changing his robes to be pink in the same motion. Thor had been expecting it though and quickly went to change them back. Unfortunately, Loki had also been expecting that, so they were now NEON pink and green stripped and rotating in a barber shop pole pattern. Thor sighed and shook his head, just as two little girls walked up to them. 

Astra and Raine noticed the crown on his head and knew from his looks that this had to be Thor and they had every intention of getting him. This one would be Astra’s show though. They walked over, ignoring Loki, not wanting Thor to know that they knew him yet, and they curtsied sweetly in front of the thunder god. “Hi, Prince Thor. I’m Raine,” she said shyly. 

“Hello, Raine and well met,” he said smiling at the sweet little girl and turning to the other. 

“I’m Astra,” she said. “Would you like to smell my pretty flower, Prince Thor?” she asked, batting her eyelashes at him. How could he say no to that? A moment later he wished he had because his pink and green robes were not complimented by a blue face and both girls were laughing and leaning against a chuckling Loki. 

“I see you’ve met my apprentices,” Loki said amusedly. 

“Your…” he looked back and forth between them for a second before muttering, “Figures.”

About that time the music stopped and the trumpets started. The gods started ushering the new apprentices over to line up. There were only four of them, including Astra and Raine. The rest of the apprentices present were older. An older man came out with a large crown on his head and sat on the throne as the trumpets finished. “Another year has passed and it is now time to introduce the newest apprentices that will join our wonderful society,” he said as he stood and faced where they were lined up and he pulled a scroll out of his robe. “First we have Eylissa, apprentice of Lofn.” 

There was a pause while a pretty little girl with blonde hair in a deep purple dress stepped up on the stage and curtsied in front of Odin. He spoke with her for a moment before placing a hand on her shoulder and turning her to face the audience where she once again curtsied and made her way off the other side of the stage. “Next is Tren, apprentice to Vor.” The process repeated itself with a boy who bowed instead of curtsied. 

“Raine, apprentice to Loki,” he called and Raine stepped up, following the first girl, giving an innocent curtsy to Odin and then to the audience before slipping a whoopie cushion on the throne unnoticed since everyone’s attention was on Odin who was calling, “Astra, apprentice to Loki.”

Astra followed her sister, curtsying to Odin before pulling the same act as she had for Thor, who was now standing beside the throne, still colorful, watching the ceremony. “King Odin, would you like to smell my pretty flower?” she asked innocently. 

“Of course, little one,” he said, her act making him forget momentarily that she was Loki’s apprentice as he leaned down to smell the flower. No one noticed Thor biting his lip trying not to laugh, but he couldn’t hold it in anymore as Odin jumped back wiping his face and just spreading the blue color around more in the process. The king shot his son a betrayed look. He had asked what happened to his face and Thor had just told him it was a long story. He also didn’t miss the fact that his son was watching as he was assaulted by the innocent little flower, obviously knowing what would happen. He pouted and sat down on the throne, a little more heavily than he might otherwise have only for a loud gassy sound to echo through the ballroom. His eyes went wide and he stood up, turning to look at the farting throne before pulling the whoopee cushion off of it and looking at it curiously. “Carry on with the party,” he said wearily waving his hand dismissively, as he went to mingle among the people, searching out his wayward son in particular. 

He quickly found Loki, accompanied by the problem children as he seemed to be congratulating them. He had already assumed that Loki had put them up to it. Odin walked over and held the offending item out to the long-haired twin. “I presume this is your property?” Raine giggled and took it back from him. “May I ask how it works?” he asked curiously. As embarrassing as it was being pranked like that in front of half the kingdom, he could take a joke and even enjoyed them most of the time. 

Raine looked to Loki who nodded amusedly at her, so she explained. “There’s a tiny straw, like this,” she pulled it out of her pocket, “and you slide it into this hole here and blow it up. Once it’s full of air, anything pressing on it makes the air come out and it sounds like a fart,” she laughed as she demonstrated. 

“Ingenious. And where would I be able to find one of these,” Odin asked. 

“You can have this one if you want,” she offered. “I have a few of them.” 

Odin took it and thanked her. He could think of a few people who would find this amusing. That done, he turned to Loki. “I assume all the chaos of the evening can be attributed to you.”

Loki laughed. “The only thing I’ve done since I got here is change Thor’s robes. Everything else has been thanks to these two promising young tricksters,” Loki told him. 

“Their powers are that advanced?” Odin asked in surprise. At most they would have gone through the ceremony less than a year ago or they would have been introduced last year. 

“No. They can’t do much at all with their powers yet. They only turned of age three months ago,” Loki said proudly. 

“Then how?” he turned to the girls to ask them. 

At a nod from Loki, Astra explained. “Marbles, ice, and banana peels on the dance floor, Vaseline on the floor in front of the drink table, ipecac syrup in the soup, fake bugs in the sandwiches, hot sauce on the cupcakes, and you know my flower and the whoopee cushion,” she explained and even Loki was impressed. He had no idea what all they had planned for the night. 

“Astonishing. You certainly are promising tricksters to do all that without any powers,” Odin was both amazed and more than a little scared of them at the moment. “Do you have anything else planned for us for the evening. 

Raine giggled, “That would be telling,” she said and both girls glanced at each other before rushing off into the crowd, leaving two laughing gods behind. 

The girls decided it was time for the coup de gras, especially given the fact that a lot of people apparently waited to eat until after the presentation. They knew that they would have fewer opportunities to do anything overt afterwards since the sigil on their robes was no longer blurred out, so they had saved the hidden tricks. Both of them slid under the food table and waited for opportunities. As people lingered at the table, filling their plates and chatting, little hands snaked out from underneath and tied their shoelaces together. Astra took a moment to refresh the Vaseline on the floor by the drinks table, noticing that fewer people were falling lately. 

Eventually, people started checking their shoelaces before they walked away from the food table and fixing them, so the girls abandoned that venture to find a new opportunity. They both grabbed large bowls of ice cream and began walking around as they ate, even walking around the dance floor, and ‘accidentally’ dripping it around, causing more and more dancers to fall. By the time they wound their way back to Loki, the chaos that had been paused during the ceremony was back in full force and the three tricksters just sat back against the wall, eating their ice cream and watching it unfold. Loki was so proud of his little tricksters that he even found himself tearing up.


	14. Chapter 14

The ball ended after midnight and Loki took the girls back to the homestead. They were so wired up that he wasn’t about to try and get them to sit down for lessons, but they could try something fun. It might still be too soon, but it was worth a shot. “Okay so how would you girls like to try creating something?” he asked. He would probably have to lend his power to the process, but since they were now able to get out an about in the city and even learning how to teleport, he would feel better if they had a little more assistance if needed. Once they had created something they would be able to call it from anywhere. 

“Yes, yes, yes! Can we really?!” Astra asked excitedly. 

“Sure. We’re gonna do it one at a time though. Who wants to go first?” Loki asked. 

“Me! I wanna go!” Raine jumped in. Astra gave a slight pout but was in too good a mood to let it bother her much. She usually got to go first for things since she was older, so she could let her sister have this one. 

“Okay. Now close your eyes and picture what you want to create. Remember that you have to consider everything, inside and out. Every cell and molecule,” Loki coached her. They were beyond human understanding in biology now, so they would easily be able to create living things. He could see her concentrating hard and when she nodded, Loki said, “Okay now just let the power flow through you and try and shape it into your creation.” Sure enough he had to lend a little power when he saw hers starting to drain and it took quite a while for her creation to take shape. With practice it would be as instant as a thought, but for now it was rather slow. Once it was finished he goggled at the result. “Okay, is there a reason your cat is the size of the house?” he asked curiously, looking at the giant silver-grey feline. 

“She needs to be big, so nothing can hurt her,” Raine said matter-of-factly. 

“I’m sensing a story here?” Loki prodded gently as he snapped up a large candy bar and handed it to her to help replenish her power. 

“I always wanted a cat, but Dad is allergic so I couldn’t have one, but I found one in the woods one day and it was hurt. I tried to fix her for weeks. I made her a little bed in the hollow of a tree, and spent every day out there with her, trying to get her to eat and clean up her cuts and even splinted her leg, but it didn’t work. She still died,” Raine said with a little sniffle. 

Loki nodded in understanding, and put his arm around the girl comfortingly. “It’s never easy to lose something we see as a pet,” he told her. “This one you can make immortal though. You can make her so she’s never hurt no matter her size.”

“But she can still be scared when a bigger animal comes after her,” Raine said. 

Loki knew that getting around with a cat that size would be more than a little difficult so he thought of a compromise. “How about I make it to where she can change her size? Then you can make her big or small with just a snap of your fingers and she can change her size herself too if she feels threatened.”

Raine looked at him and seemed to consider it for a moment before she nodded, so Loki snapped his fingers and the beautiful Russian Blue cat was now the proper size for a housecat. “Besides, now she will be underestimated by anything that wants to hurt her,” Loki pointed out. “Then they’ll get a big surprise.”

Raine giggled a bit. “That’s a great prank,” she agreed. 

Loki pulled her tight into a hug one more time and ruffled her hair before he let her go and turned to Astra. “Okay, your turn.” It had taken more than two hours for Raine to create her cat, between the planning and the creation itself. 

Astra nodded excitedly. She already knew exactly what she wanted. She had spent most of the time while Raine was taking her turn concentrating on it, so it just took her a minute to pull all those plans to the front of her mind and she nodded. Loki coached her through pushing out her power, and lent his own to the process again. Just over an hour later, it was finally finished and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Is there a story behind the dragon?” he asked tentatively. 

“I’ve just always wanted a dragon,” Astra said with a shrug, reaching up to scratch her between her wings, dark red scales glistening in the moonlight. “We can make her change size too if you want.” The dragon was just as big as Raine’s cat was to begin with. 

“That’s probably a good idea,” Loki muttered and snapped his fingers again and the dragon shrank down to the same size as the cat and immediately started fluttering around Astra who looked like a kid in a candy store. Loki handed her a large candy bar too and told her to sit down and rest. Expending so much of their power reserves could be exhausting, but it had been a good way to bring them down from the high of the ball. 

Both girls spent the next few hours with their new friends on their laps, playing sedately. Loki kept half an eye on them while he was lost in thought. He knew that their new creations would gradually take on personalities from their girls. He wasn’t too worried about the cat. Raine was a very sweet and cuddly girl. There was nothing wrong with sweet and cuddly cats. The dragon on the other hand…how was he supposed to handle a sarcastic, prickly dragon? They weren’t the easiest to handle at the best of times. He was doubting his wisdom of giving them free rein to create what they wanted to, but shook that thought off. They were tricksters. It was their right to be unpredictable and even a little insane. Trying to conform a trickster would be far more trouble than it was worth. No. he would have to deal with the dragon. Somehow. 

Later that day, they went to visit their parents, and both girls wanted to bring their new pets. Loki reminded them that for one, their dad was allergic to cats, and the dragon could easily just fly away from everyone. Crow was one thing. Crows actually existed. A dragon flying around on earth was just a disaster waiting to happen. It was only when he reminded them that they were connected to them now and only a fingersnap away should they be needed that they finally agreed, however ungraciously, to leave them behind. 

Once they appeared at their parent’s house, Jean immediately asked, “How was the ball?” looking nervously at Loki. 

“Oh it was beautiful! I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder of anyone in my life.” Jean started to relax but then he added, “There were bodies piled on the dance floor, food and drink and vomit flying all over the place, about half the guests were blue, and they even managed to slip a whoopee cushion on the king’s throne. It was pure and utter chaos,” he said looking proudly at the girls who were preening. 

By this point, Jean was a bit on the pale side. “Maybe I shouldn’t have asked,” she said looking to her husband who was laughing loudly. 

“Please tell me you have pictures?” Bruce said through his laughter.

Loki just grinned and snapped his fingers. Creating photos from his memories was incredibly simple. Jean couldn’t help but to look at them too. She cooed over the ones of them dancing, saying how beautiful they looked, and trying to ignore all the people on the ground around them. There were pictures of them sliding underneath the tables, the blue faces of more than a few people, even one of a blue faced young man in a crown standing beside and behind the throne of a blue faced older man in a fancier crown whose eyes were wide. “That’s when he sat on the whoopee cushion,” Loki explained. He had even slipped in a picture of Baldr contorting himself to try and scratch his insatiable itch as he headed towards the door. The first time the god of love and beauty had ever left one of these balls early. 

Loki no longer had any question where his girls had gotten their mischievous streak from as he watched Bruce laugh uproariously at the evidence of their deeds and the stories behind them as Jean just shook her head and rolled her eyes often.


	15. Chapter 15

After their formal acceptance as apprentices, their schedules changed a bit. They still had their lessons at night, but most mornings and early afternoons were spent in Asgard. They spent a lot of time at the fairgrounds and were making real friends for the first time in their lives. They still went to their parent’s house every day during the week in the mid-afternoon, when they would be getting home from school if everything was still the same, but they only spent one weekend afternoon with their parents. They had been a little down about it, but Loki sat them down and talked to them. “I understand the concerns you had before about their social skills. I always did understand that, but they are finally learning to mingle with other kids. They’re making a ton of friends. People like them, who can understand them. Try to consider how much they would be home instead of out with their friends as teenagers anyway.”

Thinking of it that way, Jean and Bruce had to admit that they had a pretty good deal going. They got to see her more than most parents would their teenagers and their kids still enjoyed spending time with them and telling them about their lives, which is more than could be said for the average thirteen-year-old. After their talk with Loki, they decided to just count their blessings. 

As time went on, the girls managed to do more and more with their powers. They still couldn’t create something as large and complex as their new pets without Loki’s help, and Loki wasn’t going to help them anymore. He wanted them to get there on their own. They knew that it was possible now and had a goal to strive for. That had been his main purpose. By the time summer started again, they were easily able to create their own sweets, and had gotten better at teleporting. They were no longer limited to a few feet, but could go as far as they could see. They still couldn’t teleport without line of sight, but they were getting there. 

Astra and Raine’s relationship with their sister had deteriorated even further though. It was to the point now where Carol would avoid them as much as possible, spending most of her time in her room when they were visiting. When she was forced to interact with them, usually by her parents, she would spend most of her time either glaring at them or snapping at them. Loki’s lessons in anger management were coming in as handy as ever. They knew what kind of damage they could cause if they ever snapped and hit her. Astra had even taken down a thousand-year-old oak tree once with a kick when she got mad. No matter how mad she made them, neither of them wanted to hurt their sister that badly, and especially not kill her, like would probably be the outcome of that scenario. 

This time, it was their relationship with their sister that had them hesitating when their parents invited them on their semi-annual beach trip the week after school let out. In the end, with Loki’s encouragement, they agreed to go. Like last time, Loki sent them plenty of lessons to keep them busy during the nights, but this time there were plenty of other subjects mixed up with the politics and cultural studies. Their mental capacity had reached its peak, so now Loki was working on filling their heads with the knowledge and critical thinking skills they would need. They were to be calculating the ideal distance, orbit, and environment of a planet in relation to a sun whose specs he had made up. They would be designing an entire ecosystem of that planet, and building the species that would inhabit it from the DNA up. He wanted to get their creativity flowing and highly doubted that the planet would be earthlike. 

The first few days of the trip were much like Astra and Raine expected. Tense and irritating. Right up until something happened. The family was on the beach and the kids were swimming. Astra and Raine had just ridden a wave in on their boogie boards, and Carol was trying to catch the next one, not wanting to share a wave with them, when suddenly they heard a scream. They turned to look and saw Carol rushing out further in the ocean and far too fast. They instantly knew that she had gotten caught in a rip tide. 

By the time they stood up and were trying to get a bead on where she was, they heard another scream, and this one sounded more like pain than fear. Their enhanced eyesight finally noticed her head poking out of the water and they both disappeared on the spot, reappearing next to her and immediately knew what that second scream was about. If the blood in the water wasn’t enough of a clue, the shark fin circling them would have been. Raine grabbed Carol as Astra dove after the shark. 

Jean was in a full panic by now, not even able to see her girls, and did the only thing she could think of. She called Loki. Loki arrived immediately and zeroed in on his girls and saw what was going on. Instead of intervening, he just sat back and watched. He would make sure that everyone came out of this okay, but hoped that by allowing them to handle it, the sisters could repair some of the damage to their relationship. 

Astra quickly closed in on the shark, who was too surprised by the strange fish charging right at it to know how to react. The girl latched her arms around it’s jaws holding on for dear life as it tried to throw her off. Her enhanced strength was a match for the deadly predator though. Carol noticed the sharks head jumping out of the water more than once and her sister holding it tightly. While Astra was keeping the shark busy, Raine ducked under the water and put her hands on Carol’s leg that was hanging by a thread, knitting the bone and muscle back together and pulling the pain from the injury while she worked. It took a good ten minutes before she was as done as she could get under the circumstances. She could clean it up later, but Carol wasn’t in danger of bleeding to death anymore and the leg would definitely stay attached and that was the important thing. 

Raine helped Carol climb on her back and told her to hold on, teleporting them towards the beach. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite make it. This was the first time she had ever tried teleporting anyone else with her, and it was exhausting. Especially after expending so much power in her healing. Astra felt the buildup of power and knew they were gone so she let go of the shark and followed, using her link to her twin to guide her. She realized when she landed that they were still a long way from shore. To a human’s sight, they would barely be able to see the shore even. Raine was panting. “You’re…gonna have to…take her…the rest of the way,” she managed to get out. 

“Will you be able to follow?” Astra asked worriedly. 

“Probably,” Raine told her. She was pretty sure she had another jump in her, as long as she wasn’t carrying anyone else with her. 

“If you don’t, I’ll come back for you,” Astra promised, situating Carol on her back and heading for shore. She immediately knew why Raine was in such bad shape because she was just as bad after that trip. They still didn’t make it all the way, but they were very close this time. Close enough to swim the last little bit to shore and Raine appeared next to them just as they collapsed in the dirt, waves licking at their feet, and their parents running towards them. Loki modified the few memories that had seen the teleporting, but still didn’t show himself. 

Carol was still in shock. She had yet to say a word, even as her parents held all three of them tightly. They noticed the angry jagged scarring on Carol’s leg and could guess what had happened out there and that terrified them more than anything else. Once they were hugged out for the moment, Jean and Bruce hustled the kids back to the campground. The only sign they had that Loki was around was the two large chocolate cakes sitting on their picnic table when they got back. Astra and Raine immediately plopped down at the table and started eating in relief, while Jean and Bruce kept fussing over the still nearly catatonic Carol. 

Astra and Raine were about halfway done with their refueling when Carol seemed to snap out of it and nearly tackled her sisters off the bench, hugging them and crying and apologizing for ever being mean to them and thanking them for saving her and weren’t they scared? It was a good five minutes before anyone managed to get a word through her babbling. Bruce pulled Jean away once Carol had headed over to them and managed to talk her into taking a short walk and give the girls time to work things out. She wasn’t too keen on the idea of leaving any of them alone after all that, but the chances of healing their last rifts was too good to pass up. They didn’t go far though. 

As they passed out of sight by the bathhouse, they noticed Loki standing there leaning casually against the wall. “Where were you?” Jean snapped. “My girls almost died and you were nowhere to be seen.”

“I was there,” Loki assured her. “I was watching carefully and would have stepped in if I was needed, but they had it handled.”

“Do you really think that was the time for one of your lessons?” she asked heatedly, assuming that he had been trying to teach them something. 

“It wasn’t about a lesson,” Loki assured her, not rising to her temper. He had been a basket case during the whole thing too and at least he had the ability to step in if he had been needed. He couldn’t imagine how much worse it had been for her. “Not completely anyway. Yeah, learning how to use their powers and manage a crisis is a good lesson, but the real reason I stayed out of it was that,” he pointed out the three girls cuddling on the bench. 

Once there was a break in Carol’s babbling, Raine said, “Of course we helped you. No matter how mean you were, you’re still our baby sister and we still love you.”

“Yeah, it was scary, but we knew it was even worse for you. At least we had more abilities to handle it. You couldn’t do anything. It’s our job to take care of you,” Astra added. 

“I’m sorry,” Carol sniffled. “I’m sorry I’ve been so mean to you. I just wanted to be like you and no one would let me.”

“It wasn’t our choice,” Raine told her gently. “It wasn’t anyone’s choice. If we could have, we would have made you like us,” she said, not sure if it was true or not, but there was no reason for anyone to know that. “It’s something you’re born with though. Like how we got Uncle Al’s green/gold eyes and you got Mom’s blue ones. That’s not something anyone can change.”

“You know we’ll always look out for you though. Yeah it might be nice to be a demi-god, but you’ve still got something none of the other kids you know do,” Astra told her. When Carol looked at her curiously she smirked. “A couple of all powerful demi-god sisters who will kick anyone’s ass who messes with you. Even a stupid shark.”

Carol giggled at that, and finally realized that while she may not have everything she wanted, she still had it pretty good. Not only did a near death experience do wonders for perspective, but she had watched her sisters risk their own lives to save her. How many people were that lucky. “Once we’re done eating and have a little strength back, I’ll finish fixing your leg,” Raine promised. Carol just smiled at her and hugged her tighter. Yes, she really was a lucky girl, even without being a demi-god.


	16. Chapter 16

The last few days of the vacation were a direct contrast to the beginning. Astra and Raine couldn’t show off their flashier powers, but they could use subtle ones. Now that they were invited to play with Carol and her friends, the three sisters never lost a game of hide and seek. By the time they went home on Sunday night, the three sisters were the best of friends again, and Carol was looking forward to seeing some of what Astra and Raine could do when they came to visit tomorrow. 

Loki took them home, and neither of them questioned the huge hugs he bestowed on them. They figured he had been made aware of the whole shark incident. Once he pulled himself away, he ushered them inside. “You two have got to do something about those pets of yours. They’re driving me insane,” he muttered. “Who knew that short haired cats shed so much? If I didn’t know any better I’d say she’s been growing when I’m not looking and rubbing herself on everything in the house.” Astra and Raine both laughed at that and Loki turned to Astra. “And you. Do you have any idea how many scorch marks I’ve had to cover on my walls and furniture?” 

“Sorry, Loki,” Astra giggled as they walked in the door and were immediately besieged by said pets. “I think they just missed us.”

Loki just harrumphed and brushed cat hair off of himself for what must have been the hundredth time today. “Okay, why don’t you give me your assignments and I’ll look them over tonight while you go pacify the demons.” They ran outside to play with Cat and Dragon in the moonlight while Loki enjoyed his first moment of peace in a week. 

It was interrupted a few hours later by his house growing unreasonably dark and a horrible smell wafting through it. He got up and opened the door curiously only to fly away just before he was buried in something wet and malodorous. He reappeared back outside the house to see Astra and Raine coaching the now full-sized dragon into burying his house under its feces. He smirked. So that was the way they wanted to play it huh?

He flew himself behind the girls and wrapped an arm around each of their waists and hoisted them in the air as they screamed through their laughter. Their scream turned to pleas as they realized what he was about to do. He, of course, didn’t listen to those pleas and chucked them right into the reeking pile of dragon dung that his house was buried under. It took them a good ten minutes to climb their way out of it to be met with a smirking Loki. “Looks like you girls have quite a bit of vanishing to do if you want to go anywhere today.” 

They looked at each other wide-eyed. “But you can get rid of it with just one snap of your fingers,” Raine argued. 

“I could, yes. But I didn’t make this mess,” Loki said mischievously. 

“Well I didn’t either,” Astra tried to logic her way out of it. “Dragon did.”

“Don’t think I didn’t see both of you coaching her to do it,” Loki countered amusedly. “And even if I didn’t…your pet, your mess.”

“But…” Raine tried to think of another argument to get them out of cleaning it up, but couldn’t think of anything and both girls sighed as their shoulders drooped. 

“Chop, chop. Better get to work,” Loki teased as he flew himself off to the pond. He would finish looking over their homework there, far away from the smell. 

Astra and Raine started working. They were only able to vanish small parts of it at a time and had to take breaks every hour or so for a large dose of sweets to top off their powers. They didn’t get to go into town today, and just barely managed to finish in time to go to their parents’. Unfortuntely, they didn’t take into consideration just how hard it is to get the smell of dragon dung out of their hair and skin. They had solved the clothes problem by changing, but two baths still had the smell radiating from their pores. 

When they showed up at their parents’ house, they immediately noticed the smell they brought with them and the smirk on Loki’s face. “What is that awful smell?” Jean asked scrunching her nose up. 

“Well…see…the thing is…” Raine stammered. 

Astra took over the story. “My dragon kinda pooped on Loki’s house so he made us clean it up.”

Loki laughed. “I think you’re forgetting the part of the story where the dragon was the size of a skyscraper and you were coaching it to completely bury my house under its excrement while I was inside.”

“Astra!” Jean scolded her, but any good that may have done was undone by the deep belly laugh coming from Bruce and the way Carol was rolling on the floor with her own giggles. 

“It was Raine’s idea!” Astra tried to deflect. 

“It was not!” Raine took offense to that. “All I said was that it was a good thing they were little and we didn’t have to worry about full size poop!”

“And then you said it would probably bury the house,” Astra pointed out. 

“That didn’t mean we had to try it out!” Even Jean couldn’t control her laughter at that, especially seeing the amusement on Loki’s face at the byplay. Everyone knew that despite Raine’s protests, she was just as much a participant as her sister, no matter whose idea it was. 

Once they had control of themselves again, Carol piped up. “You have a dragon! That’s so cool. Can I meet it? Or does it not like people either?” Crow had still not let Carol get close to her again, taking to the skies during their visits. 

Astra and Raine looked at Loki hopefully who considered the matter. He didn’t want something so small, figuratively speaking, to come between the sisters again now that they were finally repairing their relationship. “She stays in her small form and you watch her carefully while she’s here and send her back if she tries to fly off. And she can’t stay too long,” Loki told her. He wasn’t much in the mood to go around modifying memories of a loose dragon in the human world. 

“Can Cat come too? We’ll keep them outside so it doesn’t bother Dad,” Raine asked. 

“Same rules apply,” Loki said wearily, hoping he wouldn’t come to regret this. All three girls cheered and ran outside, leaving Loki to talk to Jean and Bruce. They had become rather close over the last year, much to Loki’s surprise. 

“A dragon?” Jean asked incredulously once the kids were out of earshot. “Is that even safe?” 

“The dragon was created by Astra and is fully loyal to her. I would imagine Raine would get the same loyalty from her. She will be a great protector should either of the girls ever need it, as would Cat. They can both grow and shrink as needed.” 

“Okay, so they’re safe for Astra and Raine, but are they safe for Carol?” she asked worriedly glancing towards the door. 

“They’ll explain that she’s more fragile than they are. Cat and Dragon are very intelligent. They’ll understand that. I can’t rule out minor injuries, but any pet is capable of that and Astra and Raine can heal her,” Loki pointed out. 

“Okay,” Jean replied. That was good enough for her. She had much more faith in her daughter’s abilities to protect their sister since the incident last week anyway. She just needed a little more reassurance. “So how are the girls doing with their studies? Their friends?” 

“They’re doing great with both,” Loki told her. “The worlds they designed for their homework last week were well thought out and quite creative. There were still problems, of course. It takes millennia of practice before they will be able to predict those kinds of things, but all the math and science was spot on. They are making a lot of friends in the village and spending a lot more time just being kids than they ever used to.” The three of them ended up getting so wrapped up in conversation that they forgot about dinner until it was almost too late, so Loki ended up snapping up a meal rather than Jean having to cook. 

Once they were outside, Astra and Raine snapped their fingers, calling Cat and Dragon to see them. They had a few instructions for their pets before letting Carol play with them though. Astra in particular was holding onto Dragon’s legs to keep her from flying away as she said, “Just remember that Carol is human and more fragile than we are.” 

Dragon gave her a sarcastic look and said, “You mean your human parents have a human daughter? How on earth did that happen?” 

“She talks!” Carol cried out in surprise. 

“Yes. She’s started that lately,” Astra said, not sure how happy she was about that fact given the deadly sarcasm the dragon tended to display when she did. 

“Hey, I’m safe for humans!” Cat said winding her way around Carol’s legs. “Pet me already!” she demanded. 

Carol blinked down at her for a moment, trying to wrap her mind around the talking animals before she bent down and picked Cat up, stroking her soft fur as the cat started to purr. About that time, Dragon wheedled away from Astra’s grip and flew at the younger girl, headbutting her shoulder and Carol fell on her butt. Being jostled like that made Cat his menacingly at Dragon for causing it and Dragon just flew up higher away from the swiping claw. 

“Play nice or you’ll have to go home,” Raine warned them as Carol laughed at their antics. Dragon settled on Carol’s shoulder playing with her hair with her golden beak while Carol used one hand to pet Cat and the other reached up to scratch Dragon’s head. Much of the next few hours were spent with the three girls chasing the flying dragon around the yard while Cat jumped from shoulder to shoulder, trying to get close enough to pounce on the flying menace. 

When they were called in for dinner, Astra and Raine snapped their fingers and sent their pets home before Astra snapped again. “Gotta get rid of all the cat hair before we go in so Dad doesn’t get sick,” she explained. 

Dinner was spent with Carol excitedly talking about Cat and Dragon and how much fun they were. None of the girls mentioned the three minor burns and two scratches they’d had to heal on Carol, and after dinner they spent the rest of the evening chatting.


	17. Chapter 17

30 Years Later:

Astra and Raine had completed their apprenticeship and Loki told them it would have been with honors if such a thing existed. They no longer lived with Loki, but had their own homestead next to his, not that any of them were home very often. Loki admitted the only reason he spent so much time there before was because he was teaching them. That was his job and his only priority at that time, but now he was out and about in the world again just like they were. Astra and Raine still tried to visit their parents once a week and Carol the same. Carol was married now with two kids of her own, both of whom loved their demi-god aunts, even if her husband was a real piece of work. 

Like ran in the family, Carol’s kids were twins; Anna and Brianna. Her husband Wayne wasn’t quite the kind of guy they would normally teach a lesson to, even if Carol hadn’t begged them not to, but he skirted that line. He could never keep a job, spent every penny that Carol managed to make, spent more time out drinking with his buddies than home with his family, and had no compunctions with stealing anything that wasn’t nailed down so he could sell it. Granted, he did buy the kids a lot of gifts with the money he got from that, what didn’t go towards more grown up toys like dirtbikes and four-wheelers and boats, but Astra and Raine helped out as much as they could, supplying the things that Carol didn’t have the money for thanks to her deadbeat husband. The one time he raised his hand to her though, he found himself locked in a closet with an anaconda for a day. He had always been deathly afraid of snakes, and he was even more so now. 

Aside from visiting their family, Astra and Raine were kept fairly busy with something resembling a business venture that they had fallen into. There were quite a few gods who were unhappy with particular people, and thought that a trickster’s revenge was far more appropriate than anything they could come up with and so contacted the sisters. In addition to removing the problem humans, it also gave the tricksters something to do other than torment them so it was a win/win situation. 

That business was what brought them to where they were now, perched in a tree in the African Savannah, waiting for the poachers that hunted the area to show up. They had plans for this guy. Once Ruhanga had contacted them and told them what these guys were up to, they definitely sympathized with the god of judgement who considered both children and animals under his protection. They had only been waiting for about an hour when they heard the trucks, and they turned themselves invisible and followed the men until they broke for camp that night. 

Astra and Raine stayed close and listened for their plans. It seemed they were going to be taking all the animals they had, plus any others they managed to snatch tomorrow to a dropoff point where they would be picked up by the sellers to be auctioned off and butchered. This was going to be fun. They waited until most of the men had fallen asleep and then put the two that were on watch to sleep as well. Once that was done they released all the animals, leaving illusions in their place for now. Most of the animals gladly took off, relishing their freedom, but there was one, a very young Savannah Cat that continued to cling to them even as they took their places back to continue watching the men. 

Raine reached down to pet their new addition, and asked, “What should we do with her?” 

“I don’t know. She obviously doesn’t want to go back to the wild. She’s probably too young to survive on her own anyway,” Astra said.

“Maybe we could make her another familiar like Crow?” Raine suggested. 

“Can we have more than one familiar?” Astra asked curiously. She’d never heard of anyone having more than one before. A lot of gods didn’t even have one. 

“Well there are two of us, so two familiars should be fine, even if they both belong to both of us,” Raine reasoned. 

“You have a point. But how will Cat feel about another feline encroaching on her territory?” Astra pointed out. 

Raine shrugged. “She’ll get over it. Maybe she’ll even take Savannah here under her wing since she’s still just a baby.” 

“Okay. Then we can make her a familiar if she wants,” Astra conceded. “What do you think, little one?” she asked the kitten. “Do you want to join our family?” Savannah jumped up in her lap and rubbed against Astra in obvious agreement, so both girls reached over and put a hand on her head, letting their power flow through the little cat. It would strengthen her and increase her intelligence. It would still take her time to learn to talk like the others, but she would have a huge leg up over others of her species. 

By the time all that was decided and settled, the men in the camp were waking up for the day. After telling off the guys on watch who had fallen asleep, they checked all the animals and got back on the road, oblivious to the tricksters on their tail, and the fact that all of their animals had been replaced with illusions. At least for now. There would be animals in those cages once they got to the drop-off point. 

Astra and Raine made sure that the day was fruitless for them and as soon as they reached their destination, the tricksters got to work. The lead poacher became a Rhino, replacing the illusion in the cage, and all the other poachers took the places of their other intended prey, including the baby Savannah Cat that would be killed for her fur. They saved that fate for the most bloodthirsty of the men. The two remaining cages that didn’t hold one of them, were vanished and the tricksters kept watch until the sellers showed up. 

The sellers had their own mess waiting for them since once the animals died, they would revert back to humans, along with any parts that had been removed. Astra and Raine would make sure that the authorities were nearby to nab them for murder and mutilation of the bodies. They hated how humans had higher penalties for crimes against them than crimes against animals, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t use the fact to their advantage. 

Once everything was done, they sent a message back to Ruhanga, and headed back to the homestead with their new family member. They could use a little down time to get her integrated into the group and make sure they could all get along. Like Raine had hoped, Cat quickly took the baby under her wing, mothering her to death. Dragon showed her love a different way though, and took great pride in chasing the kitten around, much like she used to do with Cat until she started fighting back. At least until Crow would swoop down and peck at Dragon until she gave up the chase and then fly down and wrap her wings around the scared kitten comfortingly until she stopped shaking and a contrite Dragon would inch over, belly to the ground, issuing apologies. 

If Cat was the mom, Dragon was the needling big brother (despite being female) and Crow was the grandma that kept everyone in line, including the two trickster girls from time to time. It took a little while but eventually Savannah got used to Dragon’s antics and took the same tact with him that her ‘mom’ did which caused them all a great deal of amusement, even Dragon, who usually only needled them because she wanted someone to play with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is the end of Origins. Don't worry though. I have two more TTR stories planned out and on the way. They will both probably be pretty short, if not one-shots, but there will be more :)


End file.
